Effect of Organic Amendment Addition on Soil Properties, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Grape Yield in Semi-Arid Vineyard Agroecosystems
, Mª Angeles Bustamante 1, Enrique Agulló 1 and Concepción Paredes 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comment on agronomy-1282786 “Effect of organic amendment addition on soil properties, green-house gas emissions and grape yield in semi-arid vineyard agroecosystems”
The article agronomy-1282786 studied the impact of compost (distillery organic waste compost) and animal manure (sheep/goat manure) amendment on pH, organic C, N, ammonium N, and nitrate N, grape yield, and greenhouse gas emission from soil under two wine grape varieties. Crops were maintained with rain-fed non-trellising and drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Monastrell, and also with the drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon. Results demonstrated the improved soil quality and grape yield, especially in the drip-irrigated trellising vineyards with increased CO2 under manure amended soil and reduced N2O and CH4 emission under composted soil. Based on the results, the authors have concluded compost amended and drip-irrigated trellising vineyard with the grape variety Monastrell is the sustainable method of farming. In this respect, the present manuscript would be suitable for publication in MDPI Journal of Agronomy, however before considering the manuscript for publication, authors are requested to address certain essential modifications in methodology, results, and discussion.
In the abstract, kindly add some key results with numerals and descriptive statistics
Line no. 97, kindly remove the details (“rainfed or drip-irrigated”) of irrigation types as it is a part of the methodology.
Kindly provide the replicate details and also clarify if there is any deviation in the measured values under Table 1.
Kindly explain the methodology of yield calculation in detail, it should be explained as per plot, not per vine.
To improve the readability of the article, kindly break figure 1 into two parts only temperature and rainfall data can be shown in figure 1. The rest of the details of treatment, practices, and sampling strategies applied should be provided in a separate table or figure. Also, add the details of plot size. Sampling details provided in the text can be removed (Line no 145-149) after adding the suggested table or figure.
Kindly check the order of figure no. as it's a figure no. 5 after figure no.3.
It is clear from figure 5, in general, the addition of manure had a higher impact compare to the compost one, have authors considered this while drawing the conclusion and making a recommendation from the study. Any integration of amendment could be a better option for sustainable farming rather than manure or compost-based farming alone. These points can be included in the conclusion.
Kindly discuss why the oxidizable carbon was drastically reduced on 23/03/14 and 17/06/14 within the manure amendment itself.
Kindly add the explanation why studies have carried out only one year, in general, such studies should be carried out for a longer duration (e.g. two-five years of study). If authors realize such fact then they can highlight it as future research directions.
To improve the proper understanding of emission profile under different amendments, kindly add the net CO2, N2O, and CH4 emission data in a separate figure.
Author Response
Manuscript ID: agronomy-1282786
Title: Effect of organic amendment addition on soil properties, greenhouse gas emissions and grape yield in semi-arid vineyard agroecosystems
Responses to reviewer's comments
Reviewer 1:
The article agronomy-1282786 studied the impact of compost (distillery organic waste compost) and animal manure (sheep/goat manure) amendment on pH, organic C, N, ammonium N, and nitrate N, grape yield, and greenhouse gas emission from soil under two wine grape varieties. Crops were maintained with rain-fed non-trellising and drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Monastrell, and also with the drip-irrigated trellising vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon. Results demonstrated the improved soil quality and grape yield, especially in the drip-irrigated trellising vineyards with increased CO2 under manure amended soil and reduced N2O and CH4 emission under composted soil. Based on the results, the authors have concluded compost amended and drip-irrigated trellising vineyard with the grape variety Monastrell is the sustainable method of farming. In this respect, the present manuscript would be suitable for publication in MDPI Journal of Agronomy, however before considering the manuscript for publication, authors are requested to address certain essential modifications in methodology, results, and discussion.
In the abstract, kindly add some key results with numerals and descriptive statistics
The maximum emissions of CO2, minimum emissions of N2O and the range of variation of CH4 emissions have been included in the abstract as key results.
Line no. 97, kindly remove the details (“rainfed or drip-irrigated”) of irrigation types as it is a part of the methodology.
Done
Kindly provide the replicate details and also clarify if there is any deviation in the measured values under Table 1.
The replicate details are indicated in line nº 155 and in the table 1, the values have been reported as mean ± standard error.
Kindly explain the methodology of yield calculation in detail, it should be explained as per plot, not per vine.
The grape yield was expressed per vine as kg/vine and not per plot as kg/ha because the plantation densities were different in the plots studied (the plantation densities = 2,000 and 2,300 vines per hectare for non-trellised and trellised grapevines, respectively). The plantation densities are indicated in the lines 119 and 120. This way of expressing grape production has also been used by other authors in experiments carried out in vineyards (Romero, P.; Pérez-Pérez, J.G.; del Amor, F.; Martínez-Cutillas, A.; Dodd, I.C.; Botía, P. Partial root zone drying exerts different physiological responses on field-grown grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Monastrell) in comparison to regulated deficit irrigation. Funct Plant Biol. 2014, 41, 1087-1106).
To improve the readability of the article, kindly break figure 1 into two parts only temperature and rainfall data can be shown in figure 1. The rest of the details of treatment, practices, and sampling strategies applied should be provided in a separate table or figure. Also, add the details of plot size. Sampling details provided in the text can be removed (Line no 145-149) after adding the suggested table or figure.
In figure 1, the temperature and rainfall data and the irrigation and tillage carried out have been included together, because these factors have been used together for the discussion of the results on soil GHG emissions. The authors think that these data should be together to facilitate the follow-up of the discussion of these results for the reader.
Kindly check the order of figure no. as it's a figure no. 5 after figure no.3.
The figures have been ordered
It is clear from figure 5, in general, the addition of manure had a higher impact compare to the compost one, have authors considered this while drawing the conclusion and making a recommendation from the study. Any integration of amendment could be a better option for sustainable farming rather than manure or compost-based farming alone. These points can be included in the conclusion.
The grape yield in the soils with SGM was only statistically higher than that obtained with DC in the case of plot with trellised Cabernet Sauvignon vines. In addition, in this plot the compost increased grape production with respect to the control. For this reason, the authors have not highlighted the results of SGM treatment.
Kindly discuss why the oxidizable carbon was drastically reduced on 23/03/14 and 17/06/14 within the manure amendment itself.
During the first three months of the experiment, the oxidisable OC content was significantly reduced in most of the amended soils, especially in the case of soils with DC, probably due to organic matter mineralization. This fact has been indicated and discussed in the lines 236-241. Also, a new reference has been included in the reference section ([37] Bustamante, M.A.; Said-Pullicino, D.; Paredes, C.; Cecilia, J.A.; Moral, R. Influences of winery–distillery waste compost stability and soil type on soil carbon dynamics in amended soils. Waste Manag. 2010, 30, 1966-1975.
Kindly add the explanation why studies have carried out only one year, in general, such studies should be carried out for a longer duration (e.g. two-five years of study). If authors realize such fact then they can highlight it as future research directions.
This comment has been included in the conclusion section in the lines 502-504.
To improve the proper understanding of emission profile under different amendments, kindly add the net CO2, N2O, and CH4 emission data in a separate figure.
The data of cumulative N2O, CH4 and CO2 emissions shown in table 2 have been changed to figure 7
Reviewer 2 Report
-The research conducted is quite interesting, but in my opinion could be summarized as I find the manuscript very extensive.
-Too many Graphs, Maybe the Graphs can be improved and trying to compile more Information in one graph.
-Double check the chemical compounds and how it is written
-As Suggestion, would be important to Mention how the fluxes where calculated more in detail and which formulas were used.
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Author Response
Manuscript ID: agronomy-1282786
Title: Effect of organic amendment addition on soil properties, greenhouse gas emissions and grape yield in semi-arid vineyard agroecosystems
Responses to reviewer's comments
Reviewer 2:
-The research conducted is quite interesting, but in my opinion could be summarized as I find the manuscript very extensive.
The authors have not been able to reduce the length of the manuscript because all the data shown is necessary to maintain the structure and meaning of the research presented.
-Too many Graphs, Maybe the Graphs can be improved and trying to compile more Information in one graph.
The authors have not been able to reduce the number of graphs, compiling more information in a single graph, because there are three plots and the data cannot be included in a single graph per parameter studied.
-Double check the chemical compounds and how it is written
Done
-As Suggestion, would be important to Mention how the fluxes where calculated more in detail and which formulas were used.
The calculation of the fluxes has been described in detail in the lines 181-186
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have revised the manuscript (agronomy-1282786) as per the reviewer's comment, now the manuscript is suitable for publication in Agronomy.
