Legume Species Alter the Effect of Biochar Application on Microbial Diversity and Functions in the Mixed Cropping System—Based on a Pot Experiment

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper “Legume species alter the effect of biochar application on microbial diversity and functions in the mixed cropping system” was conducted to elucidate the effect of biochar application on soil microbial diversity and N-cycling function in legume/maize mixed cropping. I feel that the manuscript could potentially contribute to consolidate management practices for improving agronomic performances in the mixed cropping systems though the application of biochar. However, there were some limitations, which were listed as follows in this paper. I recommend its publication after considering the following comments:

 Abstract:

The results of microbial abundance and diversity, methods of microbial functions prediction, and significance of this study should be added in this section.

 Materials and methods:

L116: “four mixed cropping treatments”, the description here is not rigorous, there were only three mixed cropping treatments referred to the lines 120-123, please change the expression.

L111-139: The Para is so long, it is suggested that this section could be divided into two parts, the first paragraph describes the experimental design, and the other clearly describes the sample collecting methods, especially the methods of soil sampling, such as the depth.

 Result:

L298-303: You can consider summarizing the characteristics of the VM treatment to the abstract.

 Discussion

The core of the title and hypothesis in this paper is the effect of the mixture of different legumes and corn on microorganisms. Therefore, it is suggested to add another section to discuss the reasons for the changes in microbial diversity and community under different intercropping patterns.

 Conclusion:

The conclusion should follow the main idea of the article. please state your major conclusion directly. It's too wordy now.

Author Response

We have answered these comments in the attached pdf file. Also, in the revised manuscript. Thank you so much.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Title: Legume species alter the effect of biochar application on microbial diversity and functions in the mixed cropping system

 

General Comments

After carefully reading through manuscript, I agree this manuscript is scientifically somehow and technically sound. This study is meaningful and the research results should be able to provide some guidance on theoretical and technical bases for enhance soil microbial diversity and nitrogen (N)-cycling function in the mixed cropping system with biochar application. However, some sentences need to rewrite more carefully. Detailed comments are provided as follows:

 

Title

Suggest added the experiment method in the Title. “Legume species alter the effect of biochar application on microbial diversity and functions in the mixed cropping system—based on a pot experimental”

 

Abstract

Need added the main results data in here.

 

Introduction

1. Authors have not yet clearly indicated the knowledge gap in the introduction section. There were many studies published before on this topic, what was missing and lacking in previous studies, what is new in this study? Please clarify.

 

Materials and methods

1. Line 117-121, the Latin name of same plant only need write once, so delete the second one. Also, need give the names of the crops (maize, bean, cowpea, etc.) variety.

2. Chemical fertilizer only contain P and K, why is it not contain N?

3. What is the size of the pot do you used?

4. The plants only grown for 50 days, what growth stage of each plant? Why not let plants grow for the whole period?

5. line 146-148, moved to “statistical” section.

 

Results

1. Too much descriptive statements, lack of presentation of key data results, so need added some key data results in this section.

 

Discussion

The discussion is good in structured. But pl. simplify, and also need added some innovative components during the discussion.

 

Conclusions

The conclusions are too general, descriptive and long. Authors should derive new and clear conclusions based on in-depth understanding of the data from the experiment, with better statistical analysis and data presentation. It should reflect the hypotheses and objectives of our paper, which was shown in Introduction.

 

References, more than 75, it is too much, need delete some that are not very relevant of our results.

Author Response

We have answered these comments in the attached pdf file. Thank you so much.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

First of all I want to say that the paper it is well writen and prepared. I have the following comments: 

In the case of references: The topic is of special interest and novelty so I recomend to use the latets research available, try to citate the new research about soil microbial diversity. 

In the case of the results: In figure 4, I am not an expert but maybe the authors can try to repsent better the a and b esquemes, taking to account that a lot information was indicated and can be a little complicated to understand. Try to simplify the graphics for readers. 

In the discussion maybe try to explain with the biology of the legume species, in order to understand the dymanic with biochar addition and the effect in microbial diversity. 

Author Response

We have answered these comments in the attached pdf file. Also, in the revised manuscript. Thank you so much.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The author has been revised the manuscript carefully, and most of my suggestion has been revised, so I think the manuscript has been sufficiently improved to warrant publication in this journal.