Nursery Cultivation Strategies for a Widespread Mangrove (Kandelia obovata Sheue & al.): Evaluating the Influence of Salinity, Growth Media, and Genealogy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Overall, the paper provides valuable insights into nursery cultivation strategies for Kandelia obovata mangroves, focusing on the influence of salinity, growth media, and genealogy. However, there are some areas where the paper can be improved:

The abstract Summary concisely summarizes the study's objectives, methods, and key findings. However, it could be improved by including specific quantitative results and highlighting the practical implications of the results for the management and restoration of the mangrove ecosystem.

Introduction: The introduction effectively introduces the importance of mangroves and the need for seedling cultivation. However, it would benefit from a clearer statement of the research objectives and hypotheses. Additionally, consider providing more context on the significance of Kandelia obovata and the gaps in existing knowledge that the study aims to address.

The interdiction should include more recent studies on mangrove seedling cultivation, genetic diversity, and the effects of salinity and growth media on plant growth. Provide a more comprehensive overview of the existing literature and clearly articulate how the current study contributes to filling gaps in knowledge.

Methodology: The methodology section provides a detailed description of the materials and experimental design. However, including more information on specific data collection procedures and statistical analysis methods used to assess growth parameters and mortality rates would be helpful. Justify selecting salinity levels, growth media, and genealogies.

Lines 94:The authors mention named JX, YZ, and EZD?

Please full names for JX,YZ,EZD

Please re-arrange the Materials and methods as follows:

Experimental site and environment

Experimental design and treatments

Please determine the experimental design for this experiment and replication as well as the control treatment.

Plant material

Measurements

Ensure that specific quantitative results are clearly presented and supported by appropriate statistical analyses. Provide detailed interpretations of the findings and discuss their implications in relation to the research objectives.

Expand the discussion section to thoroughly interpret the findings in the context of existing literature. Discuss the practical significance of the observed differences in growth parameters and mortality rates for mangrove conservation and restoration efforts. Address potential limitations of the study and suggest directions for future research.

Strengthen the conclusion by summarizing the main findings of the study and their implications for nursery cultivation techniques and germplasm breeding of K. obovata. Emphasize the practical relevance of the research findings and suggest avenues for future research.

Ensure that the manuscript meets academic writing standards and uses clear and concise language. Proofread the text for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. Maintain a formal tone throughout the document..

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Language and style: Ensure that the manuscript meets academic writing standards and uses clear and concise language. Proofread the text for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. Maintain a formal tone throughout the document..

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The reduction of mangrove forests leads to the disappearance of entire ecosystems and poses a threat to Earth's biodiversity. The development of new agro-techniques for restoring mangrove forests, which also address soil erosion issues in coastal areas, is undoubtedly relevant at present.

 As a result of the conducted work, certain results were obtained, but some questions remain. It is necessary to explain and justify:

- the choice of the number of salinity levels and their values;

- the selection of soil mixtures (their physico-chemical characteristics, microelement composition need to be provided);

- the selection of locations for sapling collection (what are the differences, genealogy).

 I would like to note that the choice of substrates for comparison is quite strange. You are considering plant growth on substrates that significantly differ from each other in terms of microelement composition. It is known that microelements can have a significant influence on plant development and its resistance to biotic and abiotic factors.

For example, loess can contain a significant amount of necessary micronutrients that have a beneficial effect on plants. This is supported by the fact that, for instance, in the United States, the content of loess and the presence of agricultural lands correlate well with each other. Secondly, peat is a source of many macro- and micronutrients and additionally contains fulvic and humic acids. There is a great deal of research on the beneficial effects of humates and fulvates on plants. Thirdly, coconut fiber is a well-known substrate in agrotechnology that has a beneficial effect on plants. And these options are being "impoverished" with sand. Moreover, there is an option with only sand, which is inherently disadvantageous.

Additionally, I see some correlation between biomass and the presence of potassium in the soil for cultivation. Do you not consider the influence of any components contained within the substrates that you used to prepare the growing medium? Furthermore, you mention that the seawater mixture increased the cold resistance of mangrove saplings. However, it is not a secret or discovery that salt acts as a natural "antifreeze". Naturally, the presence of salt increased the plants resistance to low temperatures. And for plants that originally inhabit saline conditions, an environment with high salt content relative to fresh water may be a necessary condition for growth and development, giving them a competitive advantage in natural conditions.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Article Nursery Cultivation Strategies for a widespread mangrove (Kandelia obovata): Evaluating the Influence of Salinity, Growth Media, and Genealogy by authors

Jinghang Zhou, Jingjun Yang, Jie Qin, Jinhua Li, Xiu Liu, Penglian We present the results of the influence of environmental factors on young Kandelia plants.

The manuscript is formatted according to the rules of the journal and contains all the necessary sections.

A number of inaccuracies must be corrected for the publication to be accepted.

Authors must take into account that each drawing along with the signature is complete information which should be sufficient for understanding. However, there are abbreviations in histograms that are not clear in the figure and remain equally unclear when referring to the legend. All details must be disclosed every time (what, why, how), abbreviations are deciphered and unambiguous.

The same applies to tables. For example, table 1. The short title does not reveal the meaning without referring to the text. Statistical processing details are placed under the table, as in Table 2.

The fact that the authors used color logic for the drawing in Figure 3 is a good idea, but in the next histogram below, the colors have a different meaning and that’s it, voila - the logic is broken. Either follow your logic or use other colors.

It is very sad that there is no primary data in the form of photographs, this is always alarming.

It is also not clear why only salinity measurements were used, while mangroves are characterized by radical changes in pH.

The absence of ion content makes verification impossible (describe this in more detail).

It would be extremely important to arrange the work in the form of any table where the correlations will become visually clear.

The work is interesting and can be accepted after corrections and additions.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors improved the manuscript as the reviewer recommended.

The paper is ready to publish.