Cultivation of Reed Canary Grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) on Light Soils in Transitional Temperate Climate to Produce Biomass and Seeds
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear authors, please find 119 comments within the attached annotated PDF version of your manuscript.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
The entire manuscript needs to be reviewed and corrected by a native speaker and the authors to meet journal requirements in terms of scientific writing. There are numerous grammatical errors, confusingly long sentences, incorrect (or missing) use of abbreviations, missing SI units, and missing words (e.g., "the" at the beginning of many sentences).
Author Response
Thank you for your valuable and constructive comments, the authors responded to all comments and followed the instructions.
The text has been checked and corrected by a native speaker, the certificate is attached
Responses to Reviewer 1 comments
Line 9 The summary has been supplemented with missing information
Line 10 Corrected as suggested
Line 17 Corrected as suggested
Line 18 and 19 Corrected as suggested
Line 20 Keywords changed and added
Line 23-26 References added
Line 28 Examples and references added
Line 30-31 References added
Line 36 Corrected as suggested
Line 39 Corrected as suggested
Line 40-44 Sentence refolmulated
Line 47 Corrected
Line 60 Corrected-reference replaced
Line 98 Corrected
Line 99 Corrected-RCG used in whole text
Line 101 Corrected-SI units used in whole text and Tables
Line 130 Corrected
Line 131 Corrected as suggested- the given publication and data were used
Line 133 Corrected
Line 132-139 Corrected and completed
Line 143-147 Corrected as suggested
Line 153 Text checked and corrected for linguistic correctness
Line 155-158 Corrected as suggested
Line 161-170 Corrected and completed
Table 1-corrected
Line 178 Soil properties completed
Line 180-181 Corrected as suggested
Line 185-186 Corrected and completed
Figure 1 Photo replaced-comment in the text
Line 188 Corrected
Line 190 Coordinates completed
Line 196 Corrected and completed
Line 198 Information completed
Figure 2- Corrected as suggested
Line 205-Corrected
Line 206-208 Corrected and completed
Line 209-210 Corrected
Line 215-218 Corrected and completed
Line 221 Corrected-comment in the text
Line 223 and 226 Corrected and completed
Line 231-236 Corrected as suggested
Line 239 Corrected
Line 242 Corrected-comment: no interaction test was performed because the presented data were considered sufficiently extensive
Table 2 Corrected
Line 246 Corrected
Line 254 Corrected as suggested in whole text
Line 259-262 Added missing explanations and discussion
Table 3 Corrected as suggested
Line 265 Corrected as suggested
Line 274-278 Information moved to introduction
Line 292 Sentence removed
Line 303-304 Corrected as suggested
Line 306 Added missing explanations and discussion
Line 320 Corrected
Line 323 Completed
Line 336 Added missing explanations
Line 341 Corrected
Line 348-377 Added missing explanations and discussion
Line 411 Explained in the discussion added above
Line 442 Corrected
Line 468 Completed
Line 508 Corrected
Line 513-521 Conclusion completed and corrected as suggested
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1. The abstract needs to be rewritten. It only explains the results, but does not fully explain the significance of the entire study.
2. In Table 7, the yield of study in 2015 significantly decreased. More evidences and citations need to be shown in the discussion. The current explanation is not convincing enough.
3.The entire Results and Discussion section needs to be revised to support the results of the study, and is currently insufficient.
4.Supplying compost and nitrogen fertilizer to crops will of course increase crop yields compared to no fertilizer, so what is the innovation of this research?
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageMinor editing of English language required
Author Response
Thank you for your valuable and constructive comments, the authors responded to all comments and followed the instructions.
The text has been checked and corrected by a native speaker, the certificate is attached
- The abstract needs to be rewritten. It only explains the results, but does not fully explain the significance of the entire study.
The summary has been supplemented with missing information and explanations
- In Table 7, the yield of the study in 2015 significantly decreased. More evidence and citations need to be shown in the discussion. The current explanation is not convincing enough.
The missing explanations were completed.
3. The entire Results and Discussion section needs to be revised to support the results of the study and is currently insufficient.
The results and discussion chapter has been supplemented with missing information, explanations and discussions in individual subchapters. The literature was also supplemented for the purpose of an extended discussion of the results.
4. Supplying compost and nitrogen fertilizer to crops will of course increase crop yields compared to no fertilizer, so what is the innovation of this research?
The innovation involves the use of poor, sandy soils, susceptible to physical and chemical erosion, to produce an optimal yield of RCG for energy purposes. An important innovative element is replacing common mineral fertilization with alternative organic fertilizer (compost) as much as possible. Assessment of the usefulness of composts in replacing RCG mineral fertilization will significantly increase the economics of bioenergy crops and reduce pressure on the soil and water environment. An additional element that improves the economics of crops in the presented conditions is the possibility of obtaining a crop of seeds that can be used to establish and renovate subsequent crops. The information listed above that was missing in the article has been supplemented.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAgain, I provided my comments in the attached annotated PDF version of the revised manuscript. As you will see, many comments of the previous round of review were not accurately addressed.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
There are still problems with English writing (e.g. sentences are very complicated or too long) that need correction. I recommend to spell-check the manuscript by (another) native speaker.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your valuable comments, which will help improve the article's quality. we have implemented all the suggestions in the article. According to the suggestion, the entire text has been checked and corrected again by another native speaker (British variety), and the certificate is attached (the changes have been marked in the text, it is impossible to list them in detail in this list).
Linguistic changes consisting of rebuilding, simplifying and shortening sentences covered the following chapters:
- introduction;
- experiments design;
- compost chemical properties;
- study site and soil properties;
- climatic conditions;
- harvest and plant analysis;
- biometric parameters;
- inflorescence and number of seeds;
- seeds yield;
- dry matter yields and morphological structure of yield;
- energy properties;
- conclusions
The units used in the article have been adjusted to the SI system again
It was checked again and the abbreviation RCG was introduced In the text instead of Phalaris arundinacea L. as suggested by the reviewer.
Detailed changes according to reviewer 1 based on the line numbers of the PDF version are below
Line 14 Unit corrected into SI (Mg)
Line 20 Keywords changed and added according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 34 Missing explanation has been supplemented according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 70 Incorrect reference entry removed
Line 97 The abbreviation RCG was introduced in the text instead of Phalaris arundinacea L. according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 224 The abbreviation RCG was introduced in the text instead of Phalaris arundinacea L. according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 325 The Abbreviation "e.g." was added as suggested
Line 326 Sentence corrected according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 326-331 Missing references added
Line 366 The incorrect entry was corrected as suggested
Line 398-399 Sentence reformulated as suggested
Line 410 (and the whole document) Abbreviation RCG instead of reed canary grass
Figure 3 "Fertilization" on axis X corrected into "fertilisation" as suggested
Line 593 and 606 (and whole document) Abbreviation RCG instead Phalaris arundinacea
Line 645 Abbreviation RCG instead Phalaris arundinacea
Line 647 Abbreviation RCG instead Phalaris arundinacea
Conclusions
Conclusions have been rebuilt, the part suitable for discussion (line660-667) has been removed, suggested further steps necessary for the application of RCG as an energy crop have been added (the last two sentences in conclusions) in accordance with the reviewer's recommendations
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAccept in present form
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for accepting the article in its latest version, but changes have been made to the text according to reviewer 1's suggestion.
The changes are detailed below:
According to the reviewers' suggestion, the entire text has been checked and corrected again by another native speaker (British variety), and the certificate is attached (the changes have been marked in the text, it is impossible to list them in detail in this list).
Linguistic changes consisting of rebuilding, simplifying and shortening sentences covered the following chapters:
- introduction;
- experiments design;
- compost chemical properties;
- study site and soil properties;
- climatic conditions;
- harvest and plant analysis;
- biometric parameters;
- inflorescence and number of seeds;
- seeds yield;
- dry matter yields and morphological structure of yield;
- energy properties;
- conclusions
The units used in the article have been adjusted to the SI system again
It was checked again and the abbreviation RCG was introduced In the text instead of Phalaris arundinacea L. as suggested by the reviewer.
Detailed changes according to reviewer 1 based on the line numbers of the PDF version are below
Line 14 Unit corrected into SI (Mg)
Line 20 Keywords changed and added according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 34 Missing explanation has been supplemented according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 70 Incorrect reference entry removed
Line 97 The abbreviation RCG was introduced in the text instead of Phalaris arundinacea L. according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 224 The abbreviation RCG was introduced in the text instead of Phalaris arundinacea L. according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 325 The Abbreviation "e.g." was added as suggested
Line 326 Sentence corrected according to the reviewer's suggestion
Line 326-331 Missing references added
Line 366 The incorrect entry was corrected as suggested
Line 398-399 Sentence reformulated as suggested
Line 410 (and the whole document) Abbreviation RCG instead of reed canary grass
Figure 3 "Fertilization" on axis X corrected into "fertilisation" as suggested
Line 593 and 606 (and whole document) Abbreviation RCG instead Phalaris arundinacea
Line 645 Abbreviation RCG instead Phalaris arundinacea
Line 647 Abbreviation RCG instead Phalaris arundinacea
Conclusions
Conclusions have been rebuilt, the part suitable for discussion (line 660-667) has been removed, and suggested further steps necessary for the application of RCG as an energy crop have been added (the last two sentences in conclusions) in accordance with the reviewer's recommendations.
