Delineation of Soil Management Zones and Validation through the Vigour of a Fodder Crop

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,

I read your manuscript with interest. It is generally well structured and its results are well substantiated. There are a few notes that I recommend taking into account before publishing it.

/1/ The Discussion section almost in no way reflects the international experience of similar studies around the world in terms of its involvement in the discussion. The findings obtained should be compared with the results of these works. Without this, this section looks weak for an international journal. This is my main significant point.

/2/ What are the limitations and uncertainties of your study? Did everything really go so smoothly?

I urge you to pay attention to the quality of the following figures:

Figure 1. Geographic coordinates are required at least for this (first) figure.

Figure 3. There are grammatical errors. The names of the months must be in English, not Portuguese. 

Figure 4. Poor readability.

Figure 5. What are the units of measurement?

Figure 6. Reversed legend.

Figure 7. The legend needs to be deciphered.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Mr. Luís Silva

[email protected]

20th December 2023

 

Dear Reviewer,

AgriEngineering

Please find attached the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Delineation of soil management zones and validation through the vigour of a fodder crop”.

All modifications were made in accordance to your considerations and the responses to the comments and suggestions are also attached below. We would like to thanks for the your effort and dedicated time to evaluate our manuscript. In our opinion, significant modifications were carried out across the manuscript allowing us to improve considerably our work.

All the document has been revised to improve the English and make it more correct and readable.

Thanks for your attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Luís Silva 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the delineation of soil management zones and validation through the vigour of a fodder crop. Despite the numerous sensory techniques available for site-specific management, this paper emphasizes a methodology that enables farmers to identify distinct management zones by combining remote and in-situ evaluations. This approach supports the creation of new opportunities for a more judicious use of natural resources. In essence, the study delves into a topic of great relevance for both theoretical understanding and practical applications. Nonetheless, there are certain areas that require revision and clarification.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Author Response

Mr. Luís Silva

[email protected]

20th December 2023

 

Dear Reviewer,

AgriEngineering

Please find attached the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Delineation of soil management zones and validation through the vigour of a fodder crop”.

All modifications were made in accordance to your considerations and the responses to the comments and suggestions are also attached below. We would like to thanks for the your effort and dedicated time to evaluate our manuscript. In our opinion, significant modifications were carried out across the manuscript allowing us to improve considerably our work.

All the document has been revised to improve the English and make it more correct and readable.

Thanks for your attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Luís Silva 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The present paper addresses integration of different sensing techniques in order to monitor soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa), remote sensing multispectral data (Sentinel-2), and in situ soil sampling.

The workflow includes four steps:

(1) acquisition of soil spatial information;

(2) delineation of management zones for soil characteristics ;

(3) gathering of meteorological data and crop remote sensing measurements, spanned over three years; 

(4) Validation of soil management zones through vegetation indexes (VI’s). 

The paper is in general well written and clearly communicated, however some improvements are needed before publication.

The graphs should bring specfic information on the meaning of the acronyms in the legends.

The approach reported in the paper is apparently using an amount of data: thus it would be interesting to add the “digitization footprint” (Mb/ha or Gb/ha) information.

At high sun radiation intensity and at high vigour condition, it is more difficult to take advantage of NDVI data to understand variability, since NDVI (as other vegetation indices) tends to saturate. The authors should better explain how they processed data especially in the case of high biomass vigour when saturation makes it difficult to monitor field variability. 

It is not clear how the results of the proposed approach might be applied under different conditions and under different croprs.

The work is not considering anmalous codutions that might be caused by extreme weathe ebents. or by changing climate scenario. How much weather variability over the three years has allowed to cover the typical variability of weather over longer times? Tha authors should address this issue. 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English is fine

Author Response

Mr. Luís Silva

[email protected]

20th December 2023

 

Dear Reviewer,

AgriEngineering

Please find attached the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Delineation of soil management zones and validation through the vigour of a fodder crop”.

All modifications were made in accordance to your considerations and the responses to the comments and suggestions are also attached below. We would like to thanks for the your effort and dedicated time to evaluate our manuscript. In our opinion, significant modifications were carried out across the manuscript allowing us to improve considerably our work.

All the document has been revised to improve the English and make it more correct and readable.

Thanks for your attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Luís Silva 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

/1/ Figure 3. There is a typo: Instead of TempeArature, write Temperature.

/2/ In English, tenths of numbers are separated from whole numbers not by a comma, but by a period (dot). That is, for example, instead of 34,5 you need to write 34.5. Check everything in the manuscript - all text, figures, and tables.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

 Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Mr. Luís Silva

[email protected]

04^th January 2024

Dear Reviewer,

AgriEngineering

 

Please find attached the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Delineation of soil management zones and validation through the vigour of a fodder crop”.

All modifications were made in accordance to your consideration and the responses to your comments and suggestions are also attached. We would like to thanks for your effort and dedicated time to evaluate our manuscript. In our opinion, significant modifications were carried out across the manuscript allowing us to improve considerably our work.

All the document has been revised to improve the English and make it more correct and readable.

Thanks for your attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr. Luís Silva

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have successfully addressed the comments. However, there are still some minor comments that the authors should address.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

 Moderate editing of English language required.

Author Response

Mr. Luís Silva

[email protected]

04^th January 2024

Dear Reviewer,

AgriEngineering

 

Please find attached the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Delineation of soil management zones and validation through the vigour of a fodder crop”.

All modifications were made in accordance to your consideration and the responses to your comments and suggestions are also attached. We would like to thanks for your effort and dedicated time to evaluate our manuscript. In our opinion, significant modifications were carried out across the manuscript allowing us to improve considerably our work.

All the document has been revised to improve the English and make it more correct and readable.

Thanks for your attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr. Luís Silva

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper has been improved in agreement with my comments, and is now ready for publication

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English language is fine

Author Response

Mr. Luís Silva

[email protected]

04^th January 2024

Dear Reviewer,

AgriEngineering

 

Please find attached the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Delineation of soil management zones and validation through the vigour of a fodder crop”.

All modifications were made in accordance to your consideration and the responses to your comments and suggestions are also attached. We would like to thanks for your effort and dedicated time to evaluate our manuscript. In our opinion, significant modifications were carried out across the manuscript allowing us to improve considerably our work.

All the document has been revised to improve the English and make it more correct and readable.

Thanks for your attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr. Luís Silva

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf