Effects of Silicon Application on Nitrogen Migration in Soil–Rice Systems under Cadmium Stress
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe review of the manuscript titled "Effects of silicon application on nitrogen migration in soil–rice systems under cadmium stress"
The manuscript studies the effects of silicon on cadmium adsorption and translocation and N migration in plants and soil. The manuscript is well written and can be helpful in mitigating the cadmium toxicity of rice grains.
The Introduction section adequately describes the problem of cadmium contamination of rice-soil systems, its effects, and possible mitigation using Si application. I suggest providing the research hypothesis here.
About 32% of literature is older than 10 years (14 out of 43).
Some specific comments:
L30-32. If you already introduced the abbreviation for cadmium at L30, then you can use "Cd". Check everywhere.
L97, L151, L172 and others. Here is a problem with reference. Check everywhere.
L115. Fig. 1. Provide an explanation of the letters with indexes used in the diagram.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
General comments
The manuscript studies the effects of silicon on cadmium adsorption and translocation and N migration in plants and soil. The manuscript is well written and can be helpful in mitigating the cadmium toxicity of rice grains.
- The Introduction section adequately describes the problem of cadmium contamination of rice-soil systems, its effects, and possible mitigation using Si application. I suggest providing the research hypothesis here.
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. The research gap has been highlighted in the end of the introduction.
- About 32% of literature is older than 10 years (14 out of 43).
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. We have replaced some of the old literatures with new literatures.
Specific comments
- L30-32. If you already introduced the abbreviation for cadmium at L30, then you can use "Cd". Check everywhere.
Response: Thank you for pointing it out. We have carefully checked and modified the whole manuscript.
- L97, L151, L172 and others. Here is a problem with reference. Check everywhere.
Response: Sorry for the sloppy mistakes. We have refreshed all the crossref links and make sure no errors.
5)L115. Fig. 1. Provide an explanation of the letters with indexes used in the diagram.
Response: thanks for your valuable suggestion. The explanation of the letters with indexes has been added in the diagram.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript shows interesting results from a research objectives were the quantify N migration on the soil and plant pathway after Si application Furthermore, clarify the mechanism by which Si affects N migration in soil–rice systems under Cd stress.. This study may be interesting to various soil engineering and agricultural fields. I think this article can be of high interest for many scientists. Of course, my opinion cannot be the same that those given by the other reviewer(s) and editor(s).And I have some suggestions to Authors as described below:
1. Title: the current title is meaningful and brief,
2. Abstract: It is good status with motive, method, key results, its recommended
3. Introduction: Review the literature has a good status but it’s advised to have English native speaker to check English grammar your paper. Please check pdf Doc which attached in attachment.
4. Material and Methods: It is good status but , have you been used statistical analysis design to analysis your data, software used for validation and comparison of averages!
5. Results: It is good status but the obtained results must be validated and compared with other results obtained by standard methodologies. Figure captions were poorly format, which should be improved. Please
6. Discussion: Authors has been succeeded to write the discussion section with sub-sections.
7. Conclusions: This section is need re-write, a research paper should end with a well-constructed conclusion. You can usually do this in one paragraph, you can raise some open questions and set the scene for the next study, this is a good place to register your thoughts about possible future work, try to explain to your readers what more could be done? What do you think are the next steps to take? What other questions warrant further investigation? Remember, the conclusion is the last part of the essay that your reader will see, so spend some time to re-writing the conclusion so that you can end on a high note.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
It’s advised to have English native speaker to check English grammar paper.
Author Response
Specific comments
- L15: The study reported....
Response: We have corrected it as you suggested.
- L89: Have you been used statistical analysis design to analysis your data!!!!
Response: The description of the statistical analysis is presented at the section 2.5 Data analysis. As shown in the figures, the letters indicate the statistical significance.
- L97, 151, 172...: Check
Response: Sorry for the sloppy mistakes. We have refreshed all the crossref links and make sure no errors.
- L152: Re-format please
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. All the equations have been reformated.
- L211: Figure captions were poorly format, which should be improved. Please
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. The captions of all figures have been revised.
- L215-228: un-bold text
Response: Sorry for the sloppy mistake. We have unbolded the text.
- L247: Re-format figures with best style
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. The figure has been reformated.
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear Authors,
I have thoroughly reviewed your research topic and found it to be highly engaging. However, I believe there are some essential points missing in the Materials and Methods (M&M) section. I have outlined these points in the attached file for your consideration.
Another critical aspect is the lack of clarity in the abstract section due to missing or ambiguous information.
I kindly request that you address these concerns during your revision process. I am optimistic that with these improvements, your manuscript will significantly enhance its quality.
Best regards,
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Specific comments
- Line 13-14: please introduce completely treatments and kind of design.add value for each parameter based on your results. please rewrite the M&M section and results of abstract.
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. The M&M and results part in the abstract have been rewritten as follows:
Line 15-31: “The rice was planted in the Cd-contaminated (5 mg kg-1) and not contaminated soils with three levels of Si application (0, 100, and 200 kg SiO2 hm-2), and the contents of N and Cd in different forms in plants and soils were measured. The group without Cd and Si was set as CK. The study reported that Cd stress caused Cd accumulation in plants, inducing a decrease of 26.0%~83.4% in plant dry weights and a decrease of 15.7%~46.6% in N concentration compared with CK. Moreover, the leaching of N in soils was increased by Cd, in which the NO3--N rather than the NH4+-N was leached out. These adverse effects on the plant growth and soil N loss were significantly alleviated by Si application in two ways: (1) the Cd availability in soils was reduced with the acid-extractable Cd (the Cd form with high mobility) decreasing from 1.07 to ~0 mg kg-1. (2) the Cd uptake and translocation in plants were restricted with the Cd content decreasing by 59.1%~96.4% and the translocation index decreasing from 17.7% to 2.2%. The combination of the two mechanisms consequently increased the N absorption of plants from 1.35 to 2.75~3.5 g. The results of the N mass balance calculation showed that compared with soil N flux, plant-absorbed N contributed predominantly (43.9%~55.6%) to the soil total N variation. Moreover, there is a significant trade-off between plant-absorbed N and soil N flux. The magnitude and direction of the soil N flux were greatly and negatively affected by plant-absorbed N during the flooding period.”
- Line 77: could you please indicate the location of study on the map?
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. We have added a figure to indicate the location of the study area.
- Line 90: your M&M IS Blind. i am confused. could you please more explain did you cultivate the rice or not you just sampled soil from rice filed?
Response: Thanks for your question. We sampled soils from the rice field in the study area and then cultivated the rice in lysimeters with the soils. The reason we did not performe rice cultivation experiment in the filed is that it is quite challenging to controle the variables that may disturb the results such as the backgound values of soil N, Cd, and Si, as well as the structure of soils.
- Line 211: could you please add regression chart between dry weights and Cd content inside of it
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. We have added the regression chart between dry weights and Cd contents in Line 243.
- Line 232: explain all of these abbreviations
Response: All of these abbreviations have been explained in the M&M section and caption of Fig. 4.
- Line 306: before indicate these results all of it must explain in the M&M section
Response: The calculation procedure of the N mass balance has been presented in the section 2.3 Calculation of nitrogen mass balance.
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe work entitled "Effects of silicon application on nitrogen migration in soil–rice systems under cadmium stress" was reviewed and comments and observations were made in order to improve its quality. This manuscript is really a very good prepared manuscript and contains serious consideration as potential publication. I think the work will contribute to the existing literature and should be published after a minor revision:
1) Abstract (Line 10-26): The Abstract must be explained with more details
2) Keywords (Line 27): Those words included in the title should be removed from this section.
3) Line 70-75: The text at the end of introduction must be revised. The motivation of the paper is not sufficiently justified in the introduction.
4) The novelty should be highlighted in abstract, introduction and conclusions.
5) Materials and methods: Some part of the materials and methods sections are not described in necessary detail and the results obtained are very limited. Improvement of these sections is mandatory
6) Discussion section: Deeper discussion with previous works relevant in the field should be included. Not only the references and figures, but also the comparison between the obtained results.
7) Please check lines 215, 235, 252, 256, 309, 318, 347….< Error! Reference source not found>
Author Response
General comments
This manuscript is really a very good prepared manuscript and contains serious consideration as potential publication. I think the work will contribute to the existing literature and should be published after a minor revision:
- Abstract (Line 10-26): The Abstract must be explained with more details
Response: Thanks for your valueable suggestions. The M&M and Result part in the abstract has been rewritten as follows:
Line 15-31: “The rice was planted in the Cd-contaminated (5 mg kg-1) and not contaminated soils with three levels of Si application (0, 100, and 200 kg SiO2 hm-2), and the contents of N and Cd in different forms in plants and soils were measured. The group without Cd and Si was set as CK. The study reported that Cd stress caused Cd accumulation in plants, inducing a decrease of 26.0%~83.4% in plant dry weights and a decrease of 15.7%~46.6% in N concentration compared with CK. Moreover, the leaching of N in soils was increased by Cd, in which the NO3--N rather than the NH4+-N was leached out. These adverse effects on the plant growth and soil N loss were significantly alleviated by Si application in two ways: (1) the Cd availability in soils was reduced with the acid-extractable Cd (the Cd form with high mobility) decreasing from 1.07 to ~0 mg kg-1. (2) the Cd uptake and translocation in plants were restricted with the Cd content decreasing by 59.1%~96.4% and the translocation index decreasing from 17.7% to 2.2%. The combination of the two mechanisms consequently increased the N absorption of plants from 1.35 to 2.75~3.5 g. The results of the N mass balance calculation showed that compared with soil N flux, plant-absorbed N contributed predominantly (43.9%~55.6%) to the soil total N variation. Moreover, there is a significant trade-off between plant-absorbed N and soil N flux. The magnitude and direction of the soil N flux were greatly and negatively affected by plant-absorbed N during the flooding period.”
- Keywords (Line 27): Those words included in the title should be removed from this section.
Response: Thanks for your valueable suggestions. The key word “soil-rice system” has been replaced by “paddy system”.
- Line 70-75: The text at the end of introduction must be revised. The motivation of the paper is not sufficiently justified in the introduction.
Response: Thanks for your valueable suggestions.
- The novelty should be highlighted in abstract, introduction and conclusions.
Response: Thanks for your valueable suggestions. The novelty has been highlighted in the abstract, instroduction and conclusions respective to our objectives.
- Materials and methods: Some part of the materials and methods sections are not described in necessary detail and the results obtained are very limited. Improvement of these sections is mandatory
Response: The redundant describtion has been deleted.
- Discussion section: Deeper discussion with previous works relevant in the field should be included. Not only the references and figures, but also the comparison between the obtained results.
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. We have try our best to deepen the discussion.
Specific comments
- Please check lines 215, 235, 252, 256, 309, 318, 347….< Error! Reference source not found>
Response: Sorry for the sloppy mistakes. We have refreshed all the crossref links and make sure no errors.
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear authors,
I have reviewed the revised file and find it to be an improvement over the previous version. It will be accepted in this journal.
Best regards,
