Overview of Kaolin Outcomes from Vine to Wine: Cerceal White Variety Case Study
, Sara Bernardo 1, Carlos Matos 2, Aureliano Malheiro 1, Rui Flores 3, Sandra Alves 3, Carina Costa 4, SÃlvia Rocha 4, Carlos Correia 1, Ana Luzio 1 and José Moutinho-Pereira 1Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript presents the positive effects of Surround WP® on the ‘Cerceal’ grape variety leaves. The results cover the effects of kaolin on the physiological and metabolic indicators of the plants and their materials. The challenges provided by the changing climate requires new innovative and organic approaches to crop management and product quality maintenance. According to my opinion, the authors should highlight the novelties with the results obtained and emphasize them in the introduction section. The results have the potential to be applied for summer stress mitigation strategy protecting grape plants and improving the quality of their fruit. In order to improve the quality of the manuscript, I have certain questions as outlined below and suggest a few corrections:
- Lines 4-12. Please check and provide the full names of affiliations and e-mails.
- Line 60. Please explain how the kaolin application was performed. On separate leaves or on the whole plant?
- Line 72. Latin names should be written in italics.
- Line 146. “The aluminium chloride (AlCl3) complex method at 510 nm.” Please check the wavelength. 510 is not correct.
- Line 141. Please indicate the preparation procedures for the extracts. Sample preparation for each analysis should be described.
- The formatting of the whole manuscript should be unified. The figures and tables should be unified in font size, type and paragraph settings. Certain numbers and symbols overlap in the figures and tables. Please fix. Letters indicated as superscript should be superscript indeed.
- Line 155-156. Why Trolox equivalents are expressed in mg/g? Most studies use micromolar concentrations.
- Line 168. Certain calibration curves are provided and certain not. Why?
- Line 255. Table 1 columns with numbers lack identification.
- Line 495. The sentence is not finished.
- A supplementary figure is not clear. The Kaolin bar in Scaphoideus titanus section is missing.
Author Response
Reviewer #1
The manuscript presents the positive effects of Surround WP® on the ‘Cerceal’ grape variety leaves. The results cover the effects of kaolin on the physiological and metabolic indicators of the plants and their materials. The challenges provided by the changing climate requires new innovative and organic approaches to crop management and product quality maintenance. According to my opinion, the authors should highlight the novelties with the results obtained and emphasize them in the introduction section. The results have the potential to be applied for summer stress mitigation strategy protecting grape plants and improving the quality of their fruit. In order to improve the quality of the manuscript, I have certain questions as outlined below and suggest a few corrections:
Reply: We are thankful for the reviewer’s comments and careful reading of the manuscript. The introduction is now improved and the novelties of the work are now highlighted (line 56-83).
Lines 4-12. Please check and provide the full names of affiliations and e-mails.
Reply: the full names and full affiliations and e-mails are provided
Line 60. Please explain how the kaolin application was performed. On separate leaves or on the whole plant?
Reply: In the line 91 we explain the kaolin application
Line 72. Latin names should be written in italics.
Reply: Vitis vinifera is now in italics (Line 103). It was a mistake.
Line 146. “The aluminium chloride (AlCl3) complex method at 510 nm.” Please check the wavelength. 510 is not correct.
Reply: I am sorry but the wavelength 510 is the one used for total flavonoids quantification according the bibliography (30 and 31).
Line 141. Please indicate the preparation procedures for the extracts. Sample preparation for each analysis should be described.
Reply: The extracts’ procedures are now described in the lines 172 and 173.
The formatting of the whole manuscript should be unified. The figures and tables should be unified in font size, type and paragraph settings. Certain numbers and symbols overlap in the figures and tables. Please fix. Letters indicated as superscript should be superscript indeed.
Reply: All the manuscript was revised and formatted.
Line 155-156. Why Trolox equivalents are expressed in mg/g? Most studies use micromolar concentrations.
Reply: In fact, we normally use mM/g but in this case, we converted mM/g into mg/g of DW in order to have the same units in all parameters.
Line 168. Certain calibration curves are provided and certain not. Why?
Reply: All curve calibrations are provided (Line 177, 180, 183, 185 and 189).
Line 255. Table 1 columns with numbers lack identification.
Reply: The table 1 is now corrected.
Line 495. The sentence is not finished.
Reply: The sentence was now completed (Line 527).
A supplementary figure is not clear. The Kaolin bar in Scaphoideus titanus section is missing.
Reply: In fact, the kaolin bar is not missing. What happens is that there was no occurrence of infected leaves.
Reviewer 2 Report
The work compares a kaolin treatment with an untreated control.
The data presented are adequate and detailed, even if they refer to a single vintage for grapes and wines.
The following notes are highlighted:
Table 1 - Insert the name of the measured parameter at the top of the columns.
Tabel 3 e line 313-314 - It is advisable to indicate the sugar content with °Brix and not Brixº.
Line 495 - The sentence is interrupted (complete the sentence).
Table 6 and Discussion point 4.2 - The Authors should better explain why kaolin treated grapes have a significantly lower Aluminum content.
Author Response
Reviewer #2
The work compares a kaolin treatment with an untreated control.
The data presented are adequate and detailed, even if they refer to a single vintage for grapes and wines.
The following notes are highlighted:
Table 1 - Insert the name of the measured parameter at the top of the columns.
Reply: The table 1 is now corrected.
Tabel 3 e line 313-314 - It is advisable to indicate the sugar content with °Brix and not Brixº.
Reply: The term °Brix is now corrected in the table 3 and in the line 346 and 347 as well as in the legend of the table 3.
Line 495 - The sentence is interrupted (complete the sentence).
Reply: The sentence was now completed (Line 527).
Table 6 and Discussion point 4.2 - The Authors should better explain why kaolin treated grapes have a significantly lower Aluminum content.
Reply: In fact, we predicted similar or high values however, lower values of Al was detected. We need to do more analysis even in the soil where kaolin is used. The kaolin that falls to the soil may change the pH of the soil, making it less acidic, leading less solubility of Al in the soil and consequently less absorption of Al by the vines (Line 528)
