Subsoiling Improves the Photosynthetic Characteristics of Leaves and Water Use Efficiency of Rainfed Summer Maize in the Southern Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript provides a good presentation and interpretation of likely underlying traits behind effects of subsoiling on photosynthetic characteristics. There is good logic and flow in the manuscript however, the manuscript requires a thorough review of English and grammar check. 

Please see attached some small points to consider.

Subsoiling improves the photosynthetic characteristics of leaves and water use efficiency of rainfed summer maize in the southern Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China

Reviewer’s comments:

Pg 1 – line 13 – consider “affects”, remove “and affectded”

Pg 1 – line 22 – “was” accompanied by an increase

Pg 1 – line 22 – delete “of”, insert “in”

Pg 1 – line 25 – delete “stomatal limitation”, insert “lead to a decrease in net photosynthetic rate”

Pg 1 – line 26 – insert “for”, after compensate, insert “but”, delete “while, which”

Pg 1 – line 38 – consider adding “.”  after plain

Pg 1 – line 41 – consider adding “variation in ” …annual and seasonal distribution

Pg 1 – line 42 – delete “vary; therefore, water resources threaten, add “threatening” before summer maize

Pg 2 – line 49 – delete “North China Plain”, as it is a repetition

Pg 2-line 52 – consider adding “and” no tillage…

Pg 2-line 66 – “increased”

Pg 2 – line 73 – delete “to”, add “will” affect

Pg 2 – line 76- “increasing” the grain

Pg 3 – line 133 – delete “by”

Pg 4 – line 118 – provide the nutrient breakdown of the compound fertilizer

Pg 4 – line 120- put “.” After compound fertilizer

Pg 4 – line 120-delete “as for the”, add “Due to” …insufficient

Pg 4 – line 123- delete “.” After “2017”

Pg 4 – line 154-remove “,” add “in the”..three replicates

Pg 4 – line 152-add “(DMA)” after “Dry matter accumulation and “DMT” after “Dry matter translocation”

Pg 7-line 219-delete “The” data. Should read “Data…”

Figure 1:Fix the axis label on Y-axis

Figure 2: Fix the axis label on Y-axis

Figure 3: Fix the axis label on Y-axis

Pg 3 of 17, Figure 5, Fix the axis labels

Pg 4 of 17, line 72-insert”and”after the green leaf area index

Pg 4 of 17 – Figure 6 -fix the x-axis labels

Pg 4 of 17-Figure 6-Add information about the differences in soil layers assessed in the two years

Pg 4 of 17-line 73-check context for word “mediate”

Pg 4 of 17 – delete “may occur due to”, add “show/illustriate”

Pg 4 of 17 – line 84 – add “respectively” after 54mm

Pg 4 of 17-line 91-add “have”, after “could”

Pg 5 of 17-line 94-add “was reduced”, delete “prevented”

Pg 5 of 17-line 97-add “have”, after may…, add “an” after “abnormal”

Pg 5 of 17-line 98-add “decrease” after the comma, delete “then the”

Pg 5 of 17-line 102- delete “saved the”, add “save” water…

Pg 5 of 17-line 104- add “be” after “may”

Pg 5 of 17-line 117-add “occur” after “may”

Pg 5 of 17-line 119- delete “have” after “which”

Pg 5 of 17-line 124-delete “of”, add “in”

Pg 5 of 17-line 125- add “and” after “increased”, delete “then the”, add “was” before “enhanced”

Pg 5 of 17-line 131-add “saving”, delete “then save”, before the input

Pg 5 of 17-line 133-delete “deep”, add “further”

Pg 5 of 17-line 135-delete “deep”, add “further”

Pg 5 of 17-line 136-delete “(,” after “practices”

Pg 5 of 17-line 138-delete “then”

Pg 5 of 17-line 141-add “this by” after “compensate”

Pg 5 of 17-line 141-delete “while”

Pg 5 of 17-line 142- delete “of”, add “in” grain yield

Author Response

Dear Ms. Cathy Mu:

We are really appreciated for the comments for our manuscript from both anonymous reviewers and the editor. We have revised the paper, and we would like to re-submit it for your consideration. The concerns and questions arisen from reviewers have been addressed in following specific responses. Please see the following details. We hope that the revision is acceptable, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

Hongjian Chen

Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Maize Research Center, Hefei, Anhui Provinces

E-mail: chenhjah @163.com

Reviewer1 

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This manuscript provides a good presentation and interpretation of likely underlying traits behind effects of subsoiling on photosynthetic characteristics. There is good logic and flow in the manuscript however, the manuscript requires a thorough review of English and grammar check.

Please see attached some small points to consider.

Subsoiling improves the photosynthetic characteristics of leaves and water use efficiency of rainfed summer maize in the southern Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China

Reviewer’s comments:

Point 1: Pg 1 – line 13 – consider “affects”, remove “and affectded”

Response 1: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we revised the expression in this section by deleted “and these factors affected the growth of summer maize.”, which was repeated with “the maize production is frequently threatened…..”, and revised this sentence to “In the southern Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) region, China, where maize production is frequently threatened by waterlogging at the seedling stage and by drought at the big flare stage.”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1, and Line11-13.

Point 2: Pg 1 – line 22 – “was” accompanied by an increase

Response 2: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we revised the expression in this section by added “was”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1, and Line 23.

Point 3: Pg 1 – line 22 – delete “of”, insert “in”

Response 3: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “of” and inserted “in”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1, and Line 23.

Point 4: Pg 1 – line 25 – delete “stomatal limitation”, insert “lead to a decrease in net photosynthetic rate”

Response 4: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “under” before “RT treatment” and “stomatal limitation”, inserted “led to a decrease in net photosynthetic rate”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1, and Line 26-27.

Point 5: Pg 1 – line 26 – insert “for”, after compensate, insert “but”, delete “while, which”

Response 5: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we inserted “for” after “compensate” and removed “while, which”, instead by “but”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1, and Line 28.

Point 6: Pg 1 – line 38 – consider adding “.” after plain

Response 6: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “.” in this sentence. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1, and Line 40.

Point 7: Pg 1 – line 41 – consider adding “variation in ” …annual and seasonal distribution

Pg 1 – line 42 – delete “vary; therefore, water resources threaten, add “threatening” before summer maize

Response 7: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “vary” in this sentence, added “variation in” before annual and seasonal distribution, and revised the “threaten” to “is threatening”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1, 2, and Line 43-44.

Point 8: Pg 2 – line 49 – delete “North China Plain”, as it is a repetition

Response 8: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we rechecked this sentence, and deleted “in the North China Plain”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 2, and Line 52.

Point 9: Pg 2-line 52 – consider adding “and” no tillage…

Response 9: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “and” before no tillage, and revised “which with ample but” to “due to”, Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 2, and Line 52-54.

Point 10: Pg 2-line 66 – “increased”

Response 10: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we revised the wrong expression, and revised the “increased”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 2, and Line 69.

Point 11: Pg 2 – line 73 – delete “to”, add “will” affect

Response 11: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “to” and added “will” before “affect maize growth….”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 2, and Line 77-78.

Point 12: Pg 2 – line 76- “increasing” the grain

Response 12: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we delted “increase” to “increasing”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 2, and Line 80.

Point 13: Pg 3 – line 133 – delete “by”

Response 13: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “by” in this sentence. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4, and Line 117.

Point 14: Pg 4 – line 118 – provide the nutrient breakdown of the compound fertilizer

Response 14: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added the nutrient content detail of urea and compound fertilizer, such as “The N fertilizer was urea (N 46%) and compound fertilizer (N%-P%-K% 15%-15%-15%), and the application rate in winter wheat and summer maize were 240 kg ha^-1, respectively. The application rates of P and K fertilizer were 105 kg ha^-1 and 135 kg ha^-1 by using compound fertilizer”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4, and Line 122-123.

Point 15: Pg 4 – line 120- put “.” After compound fertilizer

Pg 4 – line 120-delete “as for the”, add “Due to” …insufficient

Response 15: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “.” in this sentence, and deleted “as for the” by added “Due to” before this sentence. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4, and Line 125.

Point 16: Pg 4 – line 123- delete “.” After “2017”

Response 16: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “.” after 2017, and added “on” before “July 25 in 2016 and July 18 in 2017”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4, and Line 128.

Point 17: Pg 4 – line 154-remove “,” add “in the”..three replicates

Response 17: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we removed “,”and added “in the” before three replicates. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 and Line 159.

Point 18: Pg 4 – line 152-add “(DMA)” after “Dry matter accumulation and “DMT” after “Dry matter translocation”

Response 18: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer and the submission instruction, we revised the expression of this subtitle as “DMA and DMT”, because it first appeared in the instruction, so in this section, we used the abbreviations. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 2 and Line 71, 83, Page 5 and Line 157.

Point 19: Pg 7-line 219-delete “The” data. Should read “Data…”

Response 19: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we revised the expression in this section, and deleted “The” before this sentence. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 9, and Line 244.

Point 20: Figure 1:Fix the axis label on Y-axis

    Figure 2: Fix the axis label on Y-axis

    Figure 3: Fix the axis label on Y-axis

Pg 3 of 17, Figure 5, Fix the axis labels

Response 20: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we inserted the axis label for all the figures in the sigmaplot soft, and grouped with the Figures. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 9 and Line 257-259, Page 10 and Line 270-273, Page 1 of 19 and Line 6-9, Page 3 of 19 and Line 32-33.

Point 21: Pg 4 of 17, line 72-insert”and”after the green leaf area index

Response 21: Thanks for your suggestion. In this section, we changed the “green leaf area index” to an abbreviation “gLAI”, and according to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “the” and inserted “and” after gLAI. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 70.

Point 22: Pg 4 of 17 – Figure 6 -fix the x-axis labels

Response 22: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we grouped the axis label for all the figures in the sigmaplot soft. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 65-68.

Point 23: Pg 4 of 17-Figure 6-Add information about the differences in soil layers assessed in the two years

Response 23: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added sampling information respectively in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, Soil samples were collected manually using a soil auger (with 5.0 cm diameter) at 10 cm increments to a depth of 40 cm. In 2017, Soil samples were collected manually using a soil auger (with 5.0 cm diameter) at 20 cm increments to a depth of 60 cm. Due to the different sampling soil layers, we did one-way analysis of variance in 2016 and 2017, repectively. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 222-223.

Point 24: Pg 4 of 17-line 73-check context for word “mediate”

Response 24: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we re-reviewed the cited article in this section, according to the context, we changed “mediate”, and added the “facilitated” to express the meaning of this sentence. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 71.

Point 25: Pg 4 of 17 – delete “may occur due to”, add “show/illustriate”

Response 25: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “may occur due to” and added “illustrated” to express the meaning of this sentence. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 80.

Point 26: Pg 4 of 17 – line 84 – add “respectively” after 54mm

Response 26: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “respectively” after 54 mm. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 84.

Point 27: Pg 4 of 17-line 91-add “have”, after “could”

Response 27: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “have” after “could”, and the revised sentence was “In 2017, with lower precipitation at the silking stage, the SS practice could have enhanced the SWC in the 40-60 cm soil layer, which was necessary in the later growing season” Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 89.

Point 28: Pg 5 of 17-line 94-add “was reduced”, delete “prevented”

Response 28: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we reviewed this sentence, and changed the “prevented” to “reduced”. And the revised sentence was “Even applied supplemental irrigation at the big flare stage, a larger soil bulk density reduced water infiltration….”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 93.

Point 29: Pg 5 of 17-line 97-add “have”, after may…, add “an” after “abnormal”

Response 29: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “have” after “may”, and revised the “lead” to led. As for “an” after “abnormal”, we kept the previous expression, if anything was incorrect, we look forward to your corrections. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 95-96.

Point 30: Pg 5 of 17-line 98-add “decrease” after the comma, delete “then the”

Response 30: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “decreased” after comma, and deleted “then the”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 96.

Point 31: Pg 5 of 17-line 102- delete “saved the”, add “save” water…

Response 31: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “saved the”, and added “save” before “water”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 100.

Point 32: Pg 5 of 17-line 104- add “be” after “may”

Response 32: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “be” after “may”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 4 of 19, and Line 102.

Point 33: Pg 5 of 17-line 117-add “occur” after “may”

Response 33: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we added “occur” after “may”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 115.

Point 34: Pg 5 of 17-line 119- delete “have” after “which

Response 34: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “have” after “which”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 117.

Point 35: Pg 5 of 17-line 124-delete “of”, add “in”

Response 35: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “of”, and added “in” before the yield potential. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 122.

Point 36: Pg 5 of 17-line 125- add “and” after “increased”, delete “then the”, add “was” before “enhanced”

Response 36: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “then the”, and added “and” and “was” in this sentence. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 123.

Point 37: Pg 5 of 17-line 131-add “saving”, delete “then save”, before the input

Response 37: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “then save”, and added “saving” before the input. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 130.

Point 38: Pg 5 of 17-line 133-delete “deep”, add “further”

Pg 5 of 17-line 135-delete “deep”, add “further”

Response 38: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “deep” and “want to”, and added “further” in two sentences. The sentence was revised to “Additionally, we will further our research in the root and nitrogen content in soil profile response to the different tillage practices to confirm our hypothesis”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 132-134.

Point 39: Pg 5 of 17-line 136-delete “(,” after “practices”

Response 39: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “,”after practices. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 135.

Point 40: Pg 5 of 17-line 138-delete “then”

Response 40: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “then” before “improved gLAI and P_n”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 5 of 19, and Line 137-138.

Point 41: Pg 5 of 17-line 141-add “this by” after “compensate”

Pg 5 of 17-line 141-delete “while”

Response 41: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “while, which” before “still could not...”, and added “this via the improved growth of leaves” after “compensate”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 6 of 19, and Line 140-142.

Point 42: Pg 5 of 17-line 142- delete “of”, add “in” grain yield

Response 42: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the advice from the reviewer, we deleted “of” and added “in” before “grain yield”. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 6 of 19, and Line 142.

Other revisions in manuscript 

1: We invited the Professor Youhong Song (E-mail: [email protected]) who works at the University of Queensland and Anhui Agricultural University to help us to modify the language.

2: We defined the abbreviation which appeared the first time in the abstract, main text, and in figure or table captions. Please see manuscript with revisions in Abstract section (Page 1), Page 2, Page 3 (Table 3), Page 4 and Line 133, 137, 142-145, Page 5 and Line 157, Page 8 and Line 222, Page 9 and Line 249, 258, Page 1 of 19 and Line 14, Page 2 of 19 and Line 23-26. 

 3: We inserted the axis label for all the figures in the sigmaplot soft, and grouped with the Figures. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 9 and Line 257-259, Page 10 and Line 270-273, Page 1 of 19 and Line 6-9, Page 2 of 19 and Line 22-24, Page 3 of 19 and Line 32-33, Page 4 of 19 and Line 66-68. 

4: We revised the font size in Tables and Figures. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 3 and Line 99-103, Page 9 and Line 257-259, Page 11, Page 1 of 19 and Line 6-9, 10-13, Page 2 of 19 and Line 22-26, Page 3 of 19 and Line 32-33, 39-40, 54-55, Page 4 of 19 and Line 65-68. 

5: We deleted the note of Table 7, which repeated in the previous in Page 5 and Line 172-181. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 3 of 19 and Line 40-44. 

6: We checked the reference format and revised the Journal abbreviation. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 6 of 19 and Line 148-264. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks for the opportunity to review this research. The work done by the authors is good; however, I still have some important remarks:

• the font size in various parts of the manuscript must be reviewed (abstract, page 2 line 47, Table 3, page 5 Lines 178-185, Table 4, Table 5, Figure 4, page13 lines 85-88);
• in all figures the explanations of the axes are not legible (Figure 1 - y-axes; Figure 2 - y-axes; Figure3 - y-axes of 2017 year; Figure 4 y-axes of 2017 year; Figure 5 – x and y-axes;

• the references and numbers attributed to the references must be completely revised. For example: in references the number 1 is attributed to two different authors; in the text (page2 line 65), the author Sun et al 2017 is assigned the number 4 while in the References chapter the citation is indicated with the number 3; errors of this type are present throughout the paper;
• indicate the number of plots for each of the four treatments (SS+I; RT+I; SS+NI; RT+NI);
• lines 11-13: In the southern Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) region, China, the maize production is frequently threatened by waterlogging in the seedling stage and by drought in the big flare stage, and these factors affected the growth of summer maize.
• Line 85: add “respectively” at the bottom of the sentence

Author Response

We are really appreciated for the comments for our manuscript from both anonymous reviewers and the editor. We have revised the paper, and we would like to re-submit it for your consideration. The concerns and questions arisen from reviewers have been addressed in following specific responses. Please see the following details. We hope that the revision is acceptable, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

Hongjian Chen

Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Maize Research Center, Hefei, Anhui Provinces

E-mail: chenhjah @163.com

Reviewer 2

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thanks for the opportunity to review this research. The work done by the authors is good; however, I still have some important remarks:

Point 1: the font size in various parts of the manuscript must be reviewed (abstract, page 2 line 47, Table 3, page 5 Lines 178-185, Table 4, Table 5, Figure 4, page13 lines 85-88);

Response 1: Thanks for your suggestion. We apologized for this mistake. According to the advice from the reviewer, we rechecked the full manuscript and unified the format and font size, which may be induced by the format change and our mistake. Please see manuscript with revisions in Page 1 and Line 11, Page 2 and Line 50, Page 3 and Line 101, Page 5 and Line 181, Page 11, Page 1 of 19 and Line 10-13, Page 2 of 19 and Line 22-24, Page 4 of 19 and Line 84-86.

Point 2: in all figures the explanations of the axes are not legible (Figure 1 - y-axes; Figure 2 - y-axes; Figure3 - y-axes of 2017 year; Figure 4 y-axes of 2017 year; Figure 5 – x and y-axes;