Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue

Article Menu

Share Help Cite Discuss in SciProfiles

Open AccessArticle

Peer-Review Record

Properties of Nano-Amendments and Their Effect on Some Soil Properties and Root-Knot Nematode and Yield Attributes of Tomato Plant

Agriculture 2023, 13(2), 366; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13020366

by Asmaa Khader¹, Mahmoud Ibrahim²

, Fahad Alkhathami³, Hany Elsawy^3,4,*

, Nasser Abd El-Kader², Eman Shaker¹, Azza Sedky^5,6 and Esawy Mahmoud^2,*

Reviewer 1:

Vinod Kumar

Reviewer 2: Anonymous

Reviewer 3:

Elena Aydın

Agriculture 2023, 13(2), 366; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13020366

Submission received: 10 January 2023 / Revised: 25 January 2023 / Accepted: 29 January 2023 / Published: 2 February 2023

(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Soils)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The current manuscript entitled “Properties of Nano-amendments and their effect on some soil properties and root-knot nematode and yield attributes of tomato plant” by Khader et al. deals with the application of selected nano-amendments such as nanobiochar (nB), green nanobiochar (GnB) and magnetic nanobiochar (MnB), and their effect on the root-knot nematodes and tomato yield at different loading rates in sandy loam soil. The experiments were conducted appropriately and the results obtained by the authors are useful for in-field application for the improvement of tomato crops and reducing the pest attack. After a careful reading, I found this manuscript interesting and within the scope of the Agriculture MDPI journal after minor changes. My specific comments are:

1. Line 28: be specific while mentioning the functional groups and minerals. Please write groups and minerals in the bracket.

2. Please correct kg-1 and other units. Here -1 should be changed to superscript in the whole manuscript. Same comment for other units too. Otherwise correct it to mg/kg to be consistent with other units, e.g., nematode/250cm3.

3. Avoid using personal terms in the manuscript, e.g., we, us, our, etc.

4. Replaced the following keywords with more appropriate ones: number of root galls, soil amendments.

5. Lines 82-87: should be provided as a separate paragraph to highlight the novelty and objectives of the study.

6. Line 92: English error. Correct the writing style.

7. Line 101: the year is missing.

8. I think both rice and compost tea wastes may produce green nanobiochar as the source of both wastes is renewable, also why pyrolysis was not performed for composting tea waste to produce nB?

9. Line 117: English error.

10. Never use abbreviations of numerical reading while starting a paragraph (lines 117, 124, etc.).

11. ml or mL? Be consistent.

12. Add botanical authority and the source of the seed of the tomato plant.

13. Table 1: apply the test of significance to compare the properties of all amendments.

14. Fig. 2: MnB surface is blurred.

15. The discussion lacks proper reading flow and comparison to other studies with logical reasons.

16. Shift table 4 to the results section.

17. Correlation (must) and cluster (optional) analyses are recommended to understand the impact of nanobiochar application on tomato parameters.

18. Correct the typo, English, and syntax errors present in the entire manuscript.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Line 28: be specific while mentioning the functional groups and minerals. Please write groups and minerals in the bracket.

We added “The results showed that the GnB and MnB contain many functional groups (such as O-H, C=C, S-H, H-C=O, C-O and H–O–H) and minerals (such as magnetite, ferrous sulfate monohydrate and quartz)”

Please correct kg-1 and other units. Here -1 should be changed to superscript in the whole manuscript. Same comment for other units too. Otherwise correct it to mg/kg to be consistent with other units, e.g., nematode/250cm3.

We corrected in all manuscript

Avoid using personal terms in the manuscript, e.g., we, us, our, etc.

We deleted and corrected such as Therefore, the results recommend adding GnB at a rate of 6 mg kg^-1 in sandy loam soil.

Replaced the following keywords with more appropriate ones: number of root galls, soil amendments.

We changed to “Specific surface area, Root-knot nematode, Microbial biomass carbon, Soil health, Biochar, Nanomaterials, Tomato”

Lines 82-87: should be provided as a separate paragraph to highlight the novelty and objectives of the study.

We added “However, the novelty of this study is the use of green nanomaterials using compost tea to reduce root-knot nematodes infesting tomato plants and improve soil biochemical properties. It is hypothesized that the addition of green nanoparticles is able to reduce RKN of tomato plants in sandy loamy soil. Therefore, the aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of nanomaterials on RKN, biological activity and tomato growth grown in sandy loam soil.”

Line 92: English error. Correct the writing style.

We corrected “The collected rice straw was washed with tap water to remove any adherent dust, dried for 12 h at 80°C in the oven and then grinded”

Line 101: the year is missing.

We added July 1 to September 5, 2021

I think both rice and compost tea wastes may produce green nanobiochar as the source of both wastes is renewable, also why pyrolysis was not performed for composting tea waste to produce nB?

A good idea to convert compost tea waste into nanobiochar will be taken into consideration in the future

Line 117: English error.

We corrected “Add 100 mL FeSO₄ (0.884 M) to 5 g nB and stir for 30 min with adjusted pH until a black mixture formed.”

Never use abbreviations of numerical reading while starting a paragraph (lines 117, 124, etc.).

We corrected Add 100 mL FeSO₄ (0.884 M), Root-knot nematodes (RKN)

ml or mL? Be consistent.

We corrected in all manuscript

Add botanical authority and the source of the seed of the tomato plant.

We added “Seed of tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Hybrid T-186, Origin: China, Lot: 1720191, Treatment:Thiram, Importer: source of the seeds from Technogreen Company for Agricultural Projects)”.

Table 1: apply the test of significance to compare the properties of all amendments.

We added

Amendments	pH	EC, dSm^-1	OC,%	N, %	P, %	K, %	CEC, cmol_c kg^-1
Soil	7.79	1.65	0.62	30	5.89	368	29.03
CT	8.01	4.08	24.60	0.42	0.36	0.49	-
nB	8.45 ^a	2.45 ^a	56.90 ^a	2.70 ^c	3.51 ^b	5.01^b	31.30 ^b
GnB	7.58 ^b	2.29^b	46.62 ^b	4.02 ^a	4.61 ^a	5.74 ^a	32.41^a
MnB	6.69 ^c	2.24 ^c	45.70^c	3.08 ^c	3.47 ^c	5.03 ^b	29.60 c

Fig. 2: MnB surface is blurred.

We improved

The discussion lacks proper reading flow and comparison to other studies with logical reasons.

We found in discussion such as (Mahmoud et al. [38] found similar results, revealing that MBC significantly increased with the addition of biochar. And this finding was similar to Ibrahim et al.[46] who found High pH reduces the number of nematodes

Ahmed [49] found that egg masses, gall numbers in eggplant roots reduced at 50 and 90 DAT with the addition of rice straw and peanut residues biochars. Magnetic iron as a soil fertilizer revolutionized agriculture [10]. Ali [51] and Yang et al. [54] found that the maize yield and dry weight of canola increased with the addition of nano-biochar. Ali [51] and Elsawy et al. [55] found that a strong positive correlation between the dry and seed weight of canola plants with MBC (R2 = 0.80 and 0.82), CEC (R2 = 0.72 and 0.82), and OM (R2 = 0.83 and 0.91), respectively.)

Shift table 4 to the results section.

We moved to the results

Correlation (must) and cluster (optional) analyses are recommended to understand the impact of nanobiochar application on tomato parameters.

We will take this beautiful suggestion into account in another study related to the research

Correct the typo, English, and syntax errors present in the entire manuscript.

All manuscript has been thoroughly reviewed and improved by Dr. Nermin Ibrahim; Email: [email protected]; Ph.D in Applied Linguistics. Lecturer in Linguistics; Department of English language and literature, Faculty of Arts, and Menofia University,Egypt

Sincerely yours,

Esawy Mahmoud

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Line 40: Keywords: Specific surface area, Root-knot nematode, Microbial biomass carbon, Soil health, Biochar, Nanomaterials, Tomato

Line 52: Add few more sentences (with appropriate references) in order to make better sense between first and second paragraph.

Line 69 and Line 73: Thoden et al. [13] found a decrease in root knot nematodes and an increase in crop yield with the addition of compost. The addition of Fe2O3 NPs increased the shoot and root length of tomato plants, as well as increased stem and root growth of peanut plants [16,17]. – Move to discussion section.

Line 84: It is hypothesized that the addition of nanobiochar alone will not be able to completely eradicate nematodes in clay soil. – Try to rephrase the stated hypothesis for it to be clearer.

Line 92: Mix the samples with each other well to become homogeneous.- write in past tense and in a way appropriate for research paper.

Line 98: Table 1 – Are these results obtained in this study, or they are part of some yours previous research? If these results are obtained in current research move Table 1 to Results section, and add methodology for obtaining them. If this is a part of previous research add reference for it and leave it here.

Line 102: The collected rice straw was washed with tap water to remove any adherent dust, dried for 12 h at 80°C in the oven and then grinded.

Line 112: 30 min instead of 0.5h.

Line 117: Do not start the sentence with a number.

Line 118: To which value was the pH adjusted?

Line 121: 1000 rpm?

Line 124: Root-knot nematodes instead of RKN.

Line 133: Solanum lycopersicum. remove dot

Line 138: Replace dot before Nanobiocar with coma.

Line 161: Figure 1 – move to Results

Line 196: The number of galls on roots of each treatment was determined using….

Line 198: Do not start the sentence with a number.

Line 323: Did you mean Note: values in each column followed by the same letter indicate no significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) 323 according to Duncan test.

Line 326: Increased or decreased?

Line 331: Rephrase the sentence.

Figure 4: Increase the resolution in middle picture on Figure 4.

Line 386: ranged.

Line 392: The maximum root length (26.64 cm) was observed in pots treated with GnB6 (Table 4). While the minimum root length was 19.35 cm in the control plants growing in the soil only. – is this one sentence?

Line 425: The SEM image showed that the nB surfaces and the modified nB surfaces have a beneficial porous texture. Which have the ability to absorb elements and nutrients, which act as slow-release fertilizers [36]. – is this one sentence?

Table 4: Move to Results section.

Line 499 and Line 539: parentheses are missing.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Line 40: Keywords: Specific surface area, Root-knot nematode, Microbial biomass carbon, Soil health, Biochar, Nanomaterials, Tomato

We corrected

Line 52: Add few more sentences (with appropriate references) in order to make better sense between first and second paragraph.

We added “Nanoparticles play an important role in agricultural sustainable development challenges, especially in managing diseases and reducing environmental risks. There are many nanoparticles that have an effective role in strategies to suppress plant diseases and promote plant health, such as metal oxides, metalloids, nonmetals, and carbon nanomaterials [5]. Gkanatsiou et al. [6] found that low concentrations of CuNPs and FeNPs are more effective than Fostiazet (chemical nematodes) in reducing root-knot nematodes (RKN) of tomato plants.”

5 Elmer, W.; Ma, C.; White, J. Nanoparticles for plant disease management. Sci Direct Curr Opin Environ Sci Health. 2018, 66, 66-70.

6 Gkanatsiou, C.; Ntalli, N.; Dendrinou-Samara, U.; Menkissoglu-Spiroudi, C. Essential Metal-Based Nanoparticles (Copper/Iron NPs) as potent nematicidal
agents against Meloidogyne spp. J. Nanotechnol. Res. 2019.1(2), 44-58

Line 84: It is hypothesized that the addition of nanobiochar alone will not be able to completely eradicate nematodes in clay soil. – Try to rephrase the stated hypothesis for it to be clearer.

We improved “However, the novelty of this study is the use of green nanomaterials using compost tea to reduce root-knot nematodes infesting tomato plants and improve soil biochemical properties. It is hypothesized that the addition of green nanoparticles is able to reduce RKN of tomato plants in sandy loamy soil. Therefore, the aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of nanomaterials on RKN, biological activity and tomato growth grown in sandy loam soil”

Line 92: Mix the samples with each other well to become homogeneous.- write in past tense and in a way appropriate for research paper.

We deleted

Table 1 shows the analysis of soil and some nanomaterials. The data were used in the discussion, so they are better presented in methods and materials

Line 102: The collected rice straw was washed with tap water to remove any adherent dust, dried for 12 h at 80°C in the oven and then grinded.

We corrected

Line 112: 30 min instead of 0.5h.

We corrected

Line 117: Do not start the sentence with a number.

We corrected Add 100 mL FeSO₄ (0.884 M), Root-knot nematodes (RKN)

Line 118: To which value was the pH adjusted?

We adjusted the pH to 11

Line 121: 1000 rpm?

We added

Line 124: Root-knot nematodes instead of RKN.

We done

Line 133: Solanum lycopersicum. remove dot

We corrected (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Line 138: Replace dot before Nanobiocar with coma.

We changed

Line 161: Figure 1 – move to Results

This figure is provided for illustrative purposes only during the growth phase

Line 196: The number of galls on roots of each treatment was determined using….

We added “using the root gall index [26] This root gall index measures severity of galling on a 0 – 10 scale, with 10 being most severe”.

Line 198: Do not start the sentence with a number.

We corrected

Line 323: Did you mean Note: values in each column followed by the same letter indicate no significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) 323 according to Duncan test.

Certainly

Line 326: Increased or decreased?

We changed

Line 331: Rephrase the sentence.

We rephrased “The number of egg masses per tomato plant ranged from 9.00 to 79.33, and the data showed a significant difference between treatments (Table 3).”

Figure 4: Increase the resolution in middle picture on Figure 4.

We improved

Line 386: ranged.

We corrected

Table 4: Move to Results section.

We moved

Line 499 and Line 539: parentheses are missing.

We added

Sincerely yours,

Esawy Mahmoud

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Journal: Agriculture

Type: Article

Title: Properties of Nano-amendments and their effect on some soil properties and root-knot nematode and yield attributes of tomato plant

General comments to Authors:

The manuscript presents the results observed in pot study after nanobiochar application with various modifications and at 2 application rates on the tomato yield parameters and root-knot nematode. Considering the topic, the manuscript fits within the scope of the journal.

The manuscript generally reads well, however some information is missing in the methodology and there are some issues with the presentation of the results (mistakes in tables and swapped plots perhaps?) Please ask some native English speaker to check the manuscript before submitting the revision.

The results should be reported in the past tense. When referring to tables and Figures present tense should be used.

The authors wrongly start sentence with “while”.

In the majority of the result section the treatment nB is not mentioned in the text of the manuscript.

Detailed comments:

Abstract:

Line 31: replace “was” with “were”

Line 32 and 38: correct formatting of -1

Not the same formatting in Keywords, title of Table 3

Introduction:

Line 56: Meloidogyne incognita – it should be in Italics

Line 66: “some other elements” since carbon is element s well

Line 66-67: … and improves the quality of the soil and the growth of crop... this statement should be modified. The effect of biochar application is not always so positive – it can be even negative.

Line 68: ... which increases the organisms in the soil... What is increasing? Abundance?

Line 75: ...is the most widespread grown...

Line 78: correct the number (1304,015 tons)

Line 80: the negative impacts of climate change..

Line 81 ...including heat, water stress, and salinity with an expected decrease of 11% in 2050 [20]. ..? not clear what is decreasing

Lines 84-86 – the manuscript hypothesis refers to clay soil – the methodology and title of the paper refers to different soil type.

Materials and methods

Lines 90-91 – the geographical position does not have the correct format ° ´ ´´ (degrees, minutes, seconds)

Line 91 – Vertic Torrifluvents (Entisols order) .... there are different classifications of soil type, please add reference

Line 93 – sentence „Mix the samples with each other well to become homogeneous „ should be modified

Line 98 – Physical-chemical....

Line101: which year and from which area was rice collected?

Subchapter 2.3 – What feedstock was used to produce compost? What composting procedure was used?

Line 132: outdoor pots .......report the position in ° ´ ´´ (degrees, minutes, seconds)

Line 133: in which year was the study conducted? What were the climatic conditions during the pot study in the exterior?

Line 142: modify the sentence: The soil application of nB, GnB and MnB at different rates was 142

mixed by taking about 500 g of the same soil used in the experiment....

Figure 1 – modify the title

Table 1: CT: compost tea

Line 171: what type of pH? In H₂O, KCl?

Line 188: modify the sentence: ourier transform infrared was used TENSOR 27-by Bruker, which was prepared using KBr as a sample medium to confirm ...

Subchapter 2.10. – from which part of the pot was the soil taken? Was it disturbed or undisturbed sample?

Results

Line 209: The synthesized morphologies of nB, GnB and MnB by SEM are shown in Fig. 2.

Line 211: specify the range of the particle size + remove “while”

Figure 2 is too stretched, improve the ratio

Figure 3 and 4 – the results for nB and GnB are same and not consistent with the text of the manuscript

Figure 3,4 and another 4 – and magnetic nanobiochar (MnB)

Line 299: There was no….

Line 323: *Note: values in each column followed ..... (same under table 3)

Line 326: I dont agree. Acocording to the results it increased...

Line 331: The number of egg masses per tomato plant ranged from...

Line 333: MnB and GnB at a rate of 6 mg kg-1 soil addition, decreased egg mass weight by 65.96 and 333
88.65%, respectively. – the egg mass weight decreased more in the nB treatment than MnB, why i tis not mentioned?

Table 3. I suggest to use the same amount of decimal places for „852.31”

Line 356: The numbers of nematodes per 250 cm3 values are highly significant correlation. – modify this sentence

Figure 4 : try to improve the quality of the plots esspecially for OM

Line 386: ...of tomato plants ranged from …

Line 393 and 397 … (Table 4), while the….

Line 399: There was no significant…

Discussion

Lines 408- 416 – revise the text for grammar.

Line 421: ..contains high BOD and COD not show. While the peaks at. (not clear), also explain the abbreviations when first used

Table 4:

Root length at nB3 “ 29.07 b “either the value or the letter is wrong

Number of flowers at C - missing value

Dry weight at MnB6 – 13.25 Sd

Line 481: .. nanobiochar…

Line 482: … Soil pH decreased with the addition of magnetic nanobiochar (Table 2). Misleading statement as soil pH decreased in all treatment with biochar. Can you elaborate, why the pH at nB3 and nB6 is lower than C (Table 2) when the pH of nB was much higher than C (Table 1).

Lines 488- 491 – modify the text? Devide between your results and the work of someone else (with citing the work).

Line 511 – and the high magnetic ?

Line 527- between the dry and seed weight of canola plants - ? revise the statement

Lines 530 and 539 – add missing brackets

Author Response

Response to Reviewer

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

General comments to Authors:

The results should be reported in the past tense. When referring to tables and Figures present tense should be used.

The authors wrongly start sentence with “while”.

We corrected

In the majority of the result section the treatment nB is not mentioned in the text of the manuscript.

We mentioned

Detailed comments:

Abstract:

Line 31: replace “was” with “were”

We changed

Line 32 and 38: correct formatting of -1

We corrected

Not the same formatting in Keywords, title of Table 3

We corrected

Introduction:

Line 56: Meloidogyne incognita – it should be in Italics

We corrected

Line 66: “some other elements” since carbon is element s well

Of course

Biochar is an important product of the pyrolysis process of organic matter, has a high nutrient content, improves soil quality and increases crop growth

Line 68: ... which increases the organisms in the soil... What is increasing? Abundance?

We corrected to which increases the abundance of living organisms in the soil

Line 75: ...is the most widespread grown...

We corrected

Line 78: correct the number (1304,015 tons)

We correted to Turkey (13,204,015 tons)

Line 80: the negative impacts of climate change..

We corrected

Line 81 ...including heat, water stress, and salinity with an expected decrease of 11% in 2050 [20]. ..? not clear what is decreasing

We improved to However, most of the vegetables in Egypt are exposed to the negative impacts of climate changes including heat, water pressure and salinity with an expected decrease in yield to about 11% in 2050.

Lines 84-86 – the manuscript hypothesis refers to clay soil – the methodology and title of the paper refers to different soil type.

We changed

Materials and methods

Lines 90-91 – the geographical position does not have the correct format ° ´ ´´ (degrees, minutes, seconds)

We corrected

Line 91 – Vertic Torrifluvents (Entisols order) .... there are different classifications of soil type, please add reference

We deleted

Line 93 – sentence „Mix the samples with each other well to become homogeneous „ should be modified

We modified The samples taken from the study area were mixed with each other well to form a composite sample used in the experiment

Line 98 – Physical-chemical...

we corrected to Chemical analyses.

Line101: which year and from which area was rice collected?

We added

Subchapter 2.3 – What feedstock was used to produce compost? What composting procedure was used?

Rice staw as feedstock and used Turned windrow composting

Line 132: outdoor pots .......report the position in ° ´ ´´ (degrees, minutes, seconds)

We deleted

Line 133: in which year was the study conducted? What were the climatic conditions during the pot study in the exterior?

We added During the experiment, all pots were covered with a sheet and the temperature ranged between 17 and 25° C.

Line 142: modify the sentence: The soil application of nB, GnB and MnB at different rates was 142 mixed by taking about 500 g of the same soil used in the experiment....

We modified

Figure 1 – modify the title

We modified Tomato plant growth during the experiment

Table 1: CT: compost tea

yes

Line 171: what type of pH? In H₂O, KCl?

We corrected pH (H₂O)

Line 188: modify the sentence: ourier transform infrared was used TENSOR 27-by Bruker, which was prepared using KBr as a sample medium to confirm ...

We modified "Fourier transform infrared spectra of nanomaterials were recorded by TENSOR 27- Bruker using KBr discs in wavelength ranged from 400 to 4000 cm⁻¹.

Subchapter 2.10. – from which part of the pot was the soil taken? Was it disturbed or undisturbed sample?

We corrected

Results

Line 209: The synthesized morphologies of nB, GnB and MnB by SEM are shown in Fig. 2.

We corrected

Line 211: specify the range of the particle size + remove “while”

We corrected

Figure 2 is too stretched, improve the ratio

We improved

Figure 3 and 4 – the results for nB and GnB are same and not consistent with the text of the manuscript

We improved

Figure 3,4 and another 4 – and magnetic nanobiochar (MnB)

We improved

Line 299: There was no….

We corrected

Line 323: *Note: values in each column followed ..... (same under table 3)

We deleted

Line 326: I dont agree. Acocording to the results it increased...

We corrected to decreased

Line 331: The number of egg masses per tomato plant ranged from...

We corrected

We mentioned nB

Table 3. I suggest to use the same amount of decimal places for „852.31”

We improved

Line 356: The numbers of nematodes per 250 cm3 values are highly significant correlation. – modify this sentence

We improved to Figure (4) showed the existence of a statistically significant correlation between the number of nematodes per 250 cm³ and soil pH, soil OM and MBC.

Figure 4 : try to improve the quality of the plots esspecially for OM

We improved

Line 386: ...of tomato plants ranged from

We corrected …

Line 393 and 397 … (Table 4), while the…

We corrected

Line 399: There was no significant…

We corrected

Discussion

Lines 408- 416 – revise the text for grammar.

We corrected

Line 421: ..contains high BOD and COD not show. While the peaks at. (not clear), also explain the abbreviations when first used

We explained biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD)

Table 4:

Root length at nB3 “ 29.07 b “either the value or the letter is wrong

We corrected

Number of flowers at C - missing value

We corrected

Dry weight at MnB6 – 13.25 Sd

We deleted S

Line 481: .. nanobiochar…

We corrected

Sure, we corrected The soil pH decreased with the addition of MnB to a greater degree than that with GnB and nB (Table 2)

Lines 488- 491 – modify the text? Devide between your results and the work of someone else (with citing the work).

We improved to Micronutrients play a pivotal role in plant nematode resistance in regulating auxin levels in plant tissues by activating the auxin oxidase system, resulting in an increase in total phenol, calcium content and catechol oxidase activity[13]. Similarly, compost tea contains micronutrients and other phenolic substances, which gave positive results, with nanobiochar in reducing nematodes

Line 511 – and the high magnetic ?

We deleted

Line 527- between the dry and seed weight of canola plants - ? revise the statement

We revised between the dry weights of canola plants

Lines 530 and 539 – add missing bracket

We added

Sincerely yours,

Esawy Mahmoud

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Journal: Agriculture

Type: Article

Title: Properties of Nano-amendments and their effect on some soil properties and root-knot nematode and yield attributes of tomato plant

Revision 2

General comments to Authors:

The quality of the manuscript has generally improved. Some typo and English grammar errors and missing spaces occurred in the newly added text - so the authors should check them carefully

However, some my comments were not solved – the authors replied that they improved or added the information, but it was not done – maybe the authors misunderstood what the problem was.

Detailed comments:

Line 73-74: Biochar is an important product of the pyrolysis process of
organic matter, has a high nutrient content, improves soil quality and increases crop
growth.... this statement has to modified much more. The sentence says that biochar addition is ALWAYS high n nutrients, improves soil quality and crop growth. This is not always true. The effect of biochar application can be even negative s many literature sources showed. The nutrient content depends on the pyrolysis conditions and the material used forbiochar production.

Lines 107 – the geographical position this is still not correct. It should be in Degrees, minutes and seconds (DMS): for example 41°24'12.2"N 2°10'26.5"E You would not find your locality using this incomplete information.

You can use this tool to find the correct format:

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/18539?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

Material and methods – deleting the information on the soil type is not correct. This is the basic information, it has to be reported. Vertic Torrifluvents (Entisols order), just add some reference to literature mentioning this soil type, so the readers can find more information about this soil type.

Line123: from which area was rice collected? You still did not mention this. „Egypt“ is too broad information.

Pot experiment. – from which part of the pot was the soil taken? Was it disturbed or undisturbed sample? – the information is still not provided. Was the sample taken from the bottom of the pot, middle / top, was it mixed or one undisturbed sample (of what shape?)

Figure 3 and 4 - the plots for GnB and MnB in Figure 3 are the same and also the plots for GnB and MnB in Figure 4 are the same. There are no different extra peaks as stated in the text of the manuscript.

Line 505: … Can you elaborate, why the pH at nB3 and nB6 is lower than C (Table 2) when the pH of nB was much higher than C (Table 1)? This should be discussed in discussion since it is not what one would expect. After adding of acidic MnB the pH decreased, but the pH decreased also after adding alkaline nB and this should be discussed in the discussion as well.

Author Response

Detailed comments:

Line 73-74: Biochar is an important product of the pyrolysis process of organic matter, has a high nutrient content, improves soil quality and increases crop growth.... this statement has to modified much more. The sentence says that biochar addition is ALWAYS high n nutrients, improves soil quality and crop growth. This is not always true. The effect of biochar application can be even negative s many literature sources showed. The nutrient content depends on the pyrolysis conditions and the material used for biochar production.

We improved “Biochar application has shown promising results for improving soil quality, increasing crop growth and yield, eliminating biomass waste and mitigating climate change. On the other side, the application of biochar in the soil can negatively affect the growth of earthworms, reduce the thermal conductivity of the soil [16], and also affect the unavailability of some elements such as phosphorus and iron when added in large quantities. Moreover, its addition works to absorb pesticides and herbicides, which reduces its effectiveness [17]”.

Lines 107 – the geographical position this is still not correct. It should be in Degrees, minutes and seconds (DMS): for example 41°24'12.2"N 2°10'26.5"E You would not find your locality using this incomplete information.

We corrected “The soil samples were collected from near El Nubaria City, Beheira Governorate, Egypt, km 180 west of Cairo Alexandria desert road is located at 30° 9' 11.52" N 30° 40' 59.88" E.”

Material and methods – deleting the information on the soil type is not correct. This is the basic information, it has to be reported. Vertic Torrifluvents (Entisols order), just add some reference to literature mentioning this soil type, so the readers can find more information about this soil type.

We improved “The soil samples were collected from near El Nubaria City, Beheira Governorate, Egypt, km 180 west of Cairo Alexandria desert road is located at 30° 9' 11.52" N 30° 40' 59.88" E. the soil classified as Haplocalcid (Aridisols order) [21]. Undisturbed samples were taken from the study area at a depth of 0-20 cm from ten farms and mixed with each other thoroughly to form a composite sample used in the experiment”.

Line123: from which area was rice collected? You still did not mention this. „Egypt“ is too broad information.

We added “from Basuon village, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt”

Pot experiment. – from which part of the pot was the soil taken? Was it disturbed or undisturbed sample? – the information is still not provided.

Was the sample taken from the bottom of the pot, middle / top, was it mixed or one undisturbed sample (of what shape?)

Nematodes are prevalent in the root zone, and the blade can be used to collect samples down to a depth of around 20 cm. Soil disturbance must be minimized to prevent nematode damage from abrasion.

We corrected

We added (The decrease in pH could be explained with the addition of nB₃ and nB₆ compared to the control as follows: 1) It was clear from the results that the addition of nB₃ and nB₆ led to an increase in root length more than 34% (Table 4). During plant development, plant roots exude root exudates such as organic acids, amino acids, and other simple carbohydrates, which reduce the pH [3].

2) The pH decreased with the addition of nB₃ and nB₆ as a result of increase in organic matter by 47.62 and 51.29% of the soil (Table 2), respectively, as compared to the control, which improves the physical and hydraulic properties and thus the leaching of sodium from the soil complex [15]).

Sincerely yours,

Esawy Mahmoud

Author Response File: Author Response.DOCX

Article Menu

Properties of Nano-Amendments and Their Effect on Some Soil Properties and Root-Knot Nematode and Yield Attributes of Tomato Plant

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI