Effects of Various Nitrogen Regimes on the Ability of Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) to Suppress Littleseed Canarygrass (Phalaris minor Retz.)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled "Effects of various nitrogen regimes on the ability of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) to suppress littleseed canarygrass (Phalaris minor Retz.)" provides an interesting and well-argumented research on using crop nitrogen regimes to control and improve invasive weeds. The article and the research question is well structured and the results are significant in content.
Anyway, there are some minor modifications you should apply:

Line 172 and 176: You should re-write these formula in the middle of the text, thus applying the specific format.

References numbering should be properly corrected. Lines 431-453, 462-465, 486-509, presented a double numeration. 

 

 

Author Response

Dear Editor,

We have made changes in the manuscript in response to the three reviews. The revised manuscript is in track changes mode to indicate where changes have been made. Below we have detailed our responses to the reviewers queries point by point.

Reviewer report #1:

Line 172 and 176: You should re-write these formula in the middle of the text, thus applying the specific format.

Thanks for the suggestion. For this type of formula, we did not think it was necessary to separate out the formulas. However, if the journal format specifies, we could change this.

References numbering should be properly corrected. Lines 431-453, 462-465, 486-509, presented a double numeration. 

Sorry for this confusion; it was a formatting error and has now been corrected.

Reviewer report #2:

How harmful and dominant of littleseed canarygrass? The introduction needs to provide future evidence. I also wonder if there is more information about using crops to control invasive weeds. 

We added the following description indicating the competitiveness of littleseed canarygrass: “suppressing yield of crops like wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and broad bean (Vicia faba L.) through its superior competitive ability”

We also added the following sentence to explain the development of cropping systems to control invasive weeds like littleseed canarygrass: Based on experimental evidence, it was suggested that an effective cropping system could be designed to include both a submerged rice phase in the summer and a rapeseed winter crop utilizing deep to outcompete and reduce the seed bank of P. minor [21].

The experimental design and results are presented clearly. 

         Thank you.

The discussion only talks about what we already know in the introduction and results.

The repetition of some of the material from the introduction and results was necessary to remind readers of the overall cropping system factors relating to the use of rapeseed as a competitive crop, in order to put the discussion of the findings regarding impacts of N fertilizer methods in perspective. The interpretation of the analysis of these N fertilizer effects and their implications for designing cropping systems using optimal N levels comprised the novel part of the Discussion. We did modify the Discussion wording in places to highlight the interpretation of the results of the current study.

The reference messed up. 3 and 4 are identical. 6 is invalid, etc.

         We have corrected this.

Also, the references are too old, with few citations within five years.

It is true that some older references are included but many of these are to support the methodology, and we do cite papers from 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Reviewer report #3

Line 20. Please spell the scientific name Brassica napus correctly.

Corrected (and checked throughout)

Lines 105-107. Littleseed canarygrass have been collected from wheat fields since 2013 and propagated in greenhouses for 5 years? Because that's how I understand from your statement, since you conducted your experiences between 2018-2019. Please clarify this.

Because the 2013 date is not relevant, the sentence was changed to: “Littleseed canarygrass seeds were collected from wheat fields in Songming County of Yunnan Province for use in our experiments and propagated in the glasshouse of the Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China”

Lines 419-509. The references do not follow the rules of writing (the year must be bold, the name of the journal and volume in italics, etc.).

         The reference formatting was corrected.

 

We trust the manuscript is now much improved and eagerly await your assessment.

Yours sincerely,

         Gaofeng Xu

Reviewer 2 Report

The work by Xu et al. is interesting as it explored the yield of Brassica napus L. and its control efficacy of invasive littleseed canarygrass under different nitrogen applications. This information could be used for invasive weeds control. 

How harmful and dominant of littleseed canarygrass? The introduction needs to provide future evidence. I also wonder if there is more information about using crops to control invasive weeds. 

The experimental design and results are presented clearly. 

The discussion only talks about what we already know in the introduction and results.

The reference messed up. 3 and 4 are identical. 6 is invalid, etc. Also, the references are too old, with few citations within five years.

Author Response

Dear Editor,

We have made changes in the manuscript in response to the  reviews. The revised manuscript is in track changes mode to indicate where changes have been made. Below we have detailed our responses to the reviewers queries point by point.

How harmful and dominant of littleseed canarygrass? The introduction needs to provide future evidence. I also wonder if there is more information about using crops to control invasive weeds. 

We added the following description indicating the competitiveness of littleseed canarygrass: “suppressing yield of crops like wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and broad bean (Vicia faba L.) through its superior competitive ability”

We also added the following sentence to explain the development of cropping systems to control invasive weeds like littleseed canarygrass: Based on experimental evidence, it was suggested that an effective cropping system could be designed to include both a submerged rice phase in the summer and a rapeseed winter crop utilizing deep to outcompete and reduce the seed bank of P. minor [21].

The experimental design and results are presented clearly. 

         Thank you.

The discussion only talks about what we already know in the introduction and results.

The repetition of some of the material from the introduction and results was necessary to remind readers of the overall cropping system factors relating to the use of rapeseed as a competitive crop, in order to put the discussion of the findings regarding impacts of N fertilizer methods in perspective. The interpretation of the analysis of these N fertilizer effects and their implications for designing cropping systems using optimal N levels comprised the novel part of the Discussion. We did modify the Discussion wording in places to highlight the interpretation of the results of the current study.

The reference messed up. 3 and 4 are identical. 6 is invalid, etc.

         We have corrected this.

Also, the references are too old, with few citations within five years.

It is true that some older references are included but many of these are to support the methodology, and we do cite papers from 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

 

We trust the manuscript is now much improved and eagerly await your assessment.

Yours sincerely,

         Gaofeng Xu

 

 

 

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a research article which highlights the competitive effects of high value crop rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) on growth and photosynthetic characteristics of invasive species littleseed canarygrass in the field experiments.

The topic presents interest because may provide a new insight to understand mechanisms by which rapeseed competes with littleseed canarygrass under different N regimes and explore more sustainable management methods for littleseed canarygrass in agro-ecosystems.

The authors need to address the below comments:

Line 20. Please spell the scientific name Brassica napus correctly.

Lines 105-107. Littleseed canarygrass have been collected from wheat fields since 2013 and propagated in greenhouses for 5 years? Because that's how I understand from your statement, since you conducted your experiences between 2018-2019. Please clarify this.

Lines 419-509. The references do not follow the rules of writing (the year must be bold, the name of the journal and volume in italics, etc.).

Author Response

Dear Editor,

We have made changes in the manuscript in response to the three reviews. The revised manuscript is in track changes mode to indicate where changes have been made. Below we have detailed our responses to the reviewers queries point by point.

Line 20. Please spell the scientific name Brassica napus correctly.

Corrected (and checked throughout)

Lines 105-107. Littleseed canarygrass have been collected from wheat fields since 2013 and propagated in greenhouses for 5 years? Because that's how I understand from your statement, since you conducted your experiences between 2018-2019. Please clarify this.

Because the 2013 date is not relevant, the sentence was changed to: “Littleseed canarygrass seeds were collected from wheat fields in Songming County of Yunnan Province for use in our experiments and propagated in the glasshouse of the Agricultural Environment and Resource Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China”

Lines 419-509. The references do not follow the rules of writing (the year must be bold, the name of the journal and volume in italics, etc.).

         The reference formatting was corrected.

 

We trust the manuscript is now much improved and eagerly await your assessment.

Yours sincerely,

         Gaofeng Xu

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I agree to accept in present form

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.