Exogenous Appliance of Nano-Zeolite and Nano-Silicon Elevate Solidago canadensis Invasive Plant Tolerance to Water Deficiency

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The subject of the manuscript fell within the general scope of the journal and the sound of the manuscript is scientific. The manuscript presents interesting results and original contribution about the exogenous appliance of nano fertilizers in Solidago canadensis to increase the tolerance to water deficiency by photosynthesis and biochemicals modulating. The manuscript presents many typographical errors, the materials and methods, results and discussion sections need to be improved.

 

Some details that need to be corrected and improved, are below.

Title…..please correct and write the first letter of the word canadensis in lower case

Line 17….. please correct and write Solidago canadensis in italics.....also write the first letter of the word canadensis in lower case

Line 24….. CO2......please write the number 2 as subscript

Line 35….please write S. canadensis in italics

Line 37….please correct the word Constituents by constituents

Lines 51-55…. the sentence is too long and difficult to understand ..... I suggest dividing it into 2 sentences

Line 84…..please correct the word “also” by Also

Line 103….please correct the word Activities by activities

Line 111….please correct the word Converts by converts

Line 112…please correct the word zeolitizaton by zeolitization

Line 122….please correct the word it by It

Line 127…the authors mention that “which is among the top 25 most popular flowering plants”… please update the reference... the reference number 36 that you use is from the year 2014, please look for a more recent reference.

Line 131…..please correct the word Recently by recently

Table 1…..please check the format to report the parameter units, and use the same format for all the units in the same Table, it is included: Soluble ions [meq./ 100]…..100 g? 100 ml? What are the units of 100?...and also, please review the format to report the units and standardize it, in this case the authors use the slash and in other cases use superscript

Line 161…… the authors mention “with 2.0 L hr-1 flow rate”…. please write -1 as superscript

Lines 169-170……please change “Soil, Water, and Environment Research Institute, Agriculture Research Centre”, by ARC because it was defined before

 Table 2…..According to International System Units (SI units), ppm units are not recommended  to express the values of quantities…. please use the units recommended by SI units…. review and correct these units throughout the writing as well.

Line 177…..the authors mention: “was cooperated into the soil”….. the word “cooperated” is the word you want to use? the correct word is incorporated?....please review and correct

Lines 176, 179….. What does Fadden mean? or the correct word must be feddan?.....please review and correct

Please use the same format to report nano fertilizers, for example in the case of zeolite is it nano-Zeolite? nano-zeolite?, nano-ZEs? please review and use the same format throughout the writing. Same observation for the other nano fertilizers

Line 222……. units of temperature are in upper case....please check and correct

Lines 224-226…..the authors present results in the materials and methods section…… I suggest moving those lines to the results section.

Tables 1, 2, and 3, present the results of the soil properties, as well as chemical properties of applied organic matter, and of nano zeolite. In addition, Figures A to E present the results of the morphology and size of the nano-particles…..so, considering that they showed results of the study, I suggest to move them to the results section  

 Lines 242-246…. how many plants were used to take those measurements (plant height (cm), inflorescence length (cm), and number per plant, leaf length (cm) and total leaves area (cm)? please include the numbers

 Line 255……please correct the word Photosynthesis, by photosynthesis

 Lines 264-266, 284, 287, 290….. please correct the temperature units…this should be °C

 Line 281….. The sentence is confusing, please rewrite it

Line 283….. please delete the point written after 15 ml

Line 307….the authors mention that The values of CAT and SOD were defined as units mg-1 …..mg^-1 protein?...please check and correct it

Line 330…..please correct Correlations by correlations

Line 358….. please check the value of 2.90, it does not correspond to the minimum value found in the 2nd season, included in table 5

 Line 381…. please delete the dot written after Table 6

Table 6……in the title, please correct the word Contents, by contents

 Table 7…… this table presents results included in section 3.4, so I suggest moving the table to the end of section 3.4

 Line 410…..please delete the dot written after Table 7

Line 420……the authors mention the value 0.870 mol m-2 s-1……please write -2 and -1 as superscript

 Figure F…..this figure presents results included in section 3.5, so I suggest moving the figure to the end of the section 3.5……also, please check and correct the title of this figure, per example, Solidago canadensis should be written in italics

Lines 442-444, 446….. please check the format to report the units of hormone content, and use the same format for all of them

Line 447…..please correct Figure (6), by Figure F

 Table 9…. The information included on the left side of table 9 is not well appreciated, the line numbers are spliced over the names of the compounds.... .....I suggest improving the quality of the table

 Line 567……please correct Canadensis, by canadensis….and should be written in italics

 Line 651… what does Si-riches mean?

Line 630…. The authors mention that …”and considerable amounts of antioxidant enzyme activation”…but according to the results shown in Figure F, the n-Si + n-ZEs loaded N treatment presented the lowest CAT and SOD enzymatic activity values…..please check and correct

 Lines 638-641….the authors mention that “The above-mentioned results that Si- riches ZEs loaded N fertilizers improved antioxidant defense systems to scavenge ROS and protected S. canadensis plants from stress……. According to the results shown in figure F, this treatment presented the lowest CAT and SOD enzymatic activity values, so it does not agree that the T5 treatment improved the antioxidant defense system for scavenge ROS... I suggest checking and correct

 Line 680….please write Thymus vulgaris in italics

Line 686…..in the word “caraway” please capitalize the first letter

Lines 697, 698……please delete the word “acid”, it is already implicit in IAA and ABA

Author Response

Thanks for valuable comments, we have done all your comments. (marked in yellow)

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript ‘Exogenous Appliance of Nano-Zeolite and Nano-Silicon Elevate Solidago Canadensis Invasive Plant Tolerance to Water Deficiency by Photosynthesis and Biochemicals Modulating’ presents an interesting study of nano-fertilizers impact on plant growth and stress tolerance.

 

I would suggest following changes:

 

1.     The manuscript title is too long and confusing. Please make it simple, short and concise.

2.     Abstract is too descriptive. Authors need to discuss numbers and most significant results. The abstract should not be limited to simply describing all the tests. Provide qualitative information.

3.     The introduction section is too vague. Authors need to focus on hypothesis and its background. Recent relevant developments in the field should be discussed. Be precise.

4.     Nitrogen loaded nanofertilizers have been used in the study, but authors did not compare any of their results with very recent research. There are several papers published on nitrogen nanofertilizers such as nano-urea, Zn doped hydroxyapatite-urea, Zn-urea etc that should be used to compare the manuscript results.

5.     There are so many tables in the manuscript. Authors should use more graphs to explain results.

6.     Please improve typos and grammar mistakes.

7.     Authors should discuss possible mechanisms for nano-fertilizers uptake or nutrient delivery in plants. Why and how did nano-fertilizers make a difference?

8.     What about the toxicity of these nanoparticles? Did authors study dose dependent impact on plants?

9.     Authors should discuss the cost of the nanoparticles and compare them with chemical fertilizers. How easy or difficult are they for large scale production and practical application in the field?        

Author Response

Thanks for your valuable comments , I have replayed all your of it , please find the attached file.

(marked in yellow in the manuscript )

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript presents relevant data and interesting results. However, some corrections should be made for publication:

In general, paragraphs are too long. Paragraphs should not exceed 4-5 sentences of 4 lines maximum.

The experimental design is not entirely clear.

Dispersion values should be included.

Titles and footnotes in tables and figures must be self-undertanding.

Please, find a more detailed revision. Some minimal errors are highlighted in yellow.

Best regards

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thanks for your valuable comments , we have done all of it , (marked in yellow). please check the modified manuscript file.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Authors have done the changes.