Spatial Variability of Yield and Nitrogen Indicators—A Crop Rotation Approach

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This work does have scientific merit and is very thorough. However, some work needs to be done when it comes to grammar. Find below some suggestions with some of the sentences. These are just some examples. I suggest the manuscript be checked for English language 

Some issues are:

• Long sentences
• Inconsistencies with abbreviations
•  Other grammatical issues (missing words or construction of sentences)

Please consider making the following changes:

Lines 30-32: "The absolutely basic food 30 production factor, excluding weather as the decisive environmental factor, is biological progress, resulting in new, efficient varieties [4, 5]". Sentence is way too long and its meaning completely lost; please revise. 

Line 33- "The primary agronomic factor is nitrogen (N), its available amount in the soil/plant system necessary to exploit the potential of the currently grown variety". Please consider changing it into "The primary agronomic factor is nitrogen (N); its available amount in the soil/plant system is necessary to exploit the potential of the current grown variety". Grammatically this sentence needs to be checked and revised

Line 35-38: "As stressed by numerous authors, the success of the Green Revolution was due to interaction between the yielding potential of new varieties and the simultaneous increase in the consumption of N fertilizer which provided crops with strong protection control against diseases and pathogens."

Please consider changing this to: As stressed by numerous authors, the success of the Green Revolution was due to interaction between the yield potential of new varieties and the simultaneous increase in the consumption of N fertilizer which provided crops with strong protection control against diseases and pathogens". 

In addition if you say "as stressed by numerous authors" you need to cite at least some works.

"During the last decades of the XX century the well-recognized threat of environmental pollution from active nitrogen, including nitrates, and its 48 gaseous compounds (ammonia, N oxides), triggered a strong response in developed countries."

Please consider changing to "During the last decades of the 20th century the well-recognized threat of environmental pollution from active N, including nitrates, and its gaseous compounds (ammonia, N oxides), triggered a strong response in developed countries." - Be consistent with abbreviation of nitrogen (N)

Author Response

Revision 1

This work does have scientific merit and is very thorough. However, some work needs to be done when it comes to grammar. Find below some suggestions with some of the sentences. These are just some examples. I suggest the manuscript be checked for English language 

Some issues are:1.

• Long sentences
• Other grammatical issues (missing words or construction of sentences)

A manuscript has been corrected by Mr. Robert Kippen, an Englishman, at present working as a lectures at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.

• Inconsistencies with abbreviations

We have checked and corrected all abbreviations used in the manuscript, i.e. in the text, tables and figures.

Please consider making the following changes:

Lines 30-32: "The absolutely basic food 30 production factor, excluding weather as the decisive environmental factor, is biological progress, resulting in new, efficient varieties [4, 5]". Sentence is way too long and its meaning completely lost; please revise. 

This sentence has been corrected in accordance to the Reviewer’s suggestion.

Line 33- "The primary agronomic factor is nitrogen (N), its available amount in the soil/plant system necessary to exploit the potential of the currently grown variety". Please consider changing it into "The primary agronomic factor is nitrogen (N); its available amount in the soil/plant system is necessary to exploit the potential of the current grown variety". Grammatically this sentence needs to be checked and revised

This sentence has been changed as suggested by the Reviewer.

Line 35-38: "As stressed by numerous authors, the success of the Green Revolution was due to interaction between the yielding potential of new varieties and the simultaneous increase in the consumption of N fertilizer which provided crops with strong protection control against diseases and pathogens."

Please consider changing this to: As stressed by numerous authors, the success of the Green Revolution was due to interaction between the yield potential of new varieties and the simultaneous increase in the consumption of N fertilizer which provided crops with strong protection control against diseases and pathogens". 

In addition if you say "as stressed by numerous authors" you need to cite at least some works.

This sentence has been changed as proposed by the reviewer. There have been added respective references to stress the importance of the discussed issue.

"During the last decades of the XX century the well-recognized threat of environmental pollution from active nitrogen, including nitrates, and its 48 gaseous compounds (ammonia, N oxides), triggered a strong response in developed countries."

Please consider changing to "During the last decades of the 20th century the well-recognized threat of environmental pollution from active N, including nitrates, and its gaseous compounds (ammonia, N oxides), triggered a strong response in developed countries." - Be consistent with abbreviation of nitrogen (N)

This sentence has been changed as suggested by the Reviewer.

The used abbreviations have been checked and corrected in order to avoid misunderstandings, including the text, tables and figures.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article is written incredibly intricately. The introduction is nicely written and relates to the topic. But hell begins with the Material and Methods section, more precisely with Section 2.4. The number of shortcuts is incredible and requires maximum concentration. I can imagine that this will discourage a lot of people from reading. There is power in simplicity. You can also shorten the description of the PCA method with peace of mind. A person who knows PCA looks at the graph and understands it. A person who does not know PCA can read your description fifty times and it will not help him anyway. Part 3, The Results, is a massacre. Such a detailed description of statistics is incredibly challenging, lifeless and discouraging for readers. I will not go into detail about that huge number of abbreviations. The chapter Discussion and Conclusion brought a partial relaxation of the mind.
Whether the data distribution is normal or abnormal is an indicator of which evaluation method to choose. You don't have to write it on so many lines.
From the point of view of methods, I have no comments. Not in terms of results either. The article should be simpler, there is an incredible number of variables evaluated here, which corresponds to the length of the article. The article is difficult to digest until the discussion clarifies the whole topic.
Check the English again, I found few typos.

Author Response

 Revision 2 Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article is written incredibly intricately. The introduction is nicely written and relates to the topic. But hell begins with the Material and Methods section, more precisely with Section 2.4. The number of shortcuts is incredible and requires maximum concentration. I can imagine that this will discourage a lot of people from reading. There is power in simplicity. You can also shorten the description of the PCA method with peace of mind. A person who knows PCA looks at the graph and understands it. A person who does not know PCA can read your description fifty times and it will not help him anyway. Part 3, The Results, is a massacre. Such a detailed description of statistics is incredibly challenging, lifeless and discouraging for readers. I will not go into detail about that huge number of abbreviations. The chapter Discussion and Conclusion brought a partial relaxation of the mind.
Whether the data distribution is normal or abnormal is an indicator of which evaluation method to choose. You don't have to write it on so many lines.
From the point of view of methods, I have no comments. Not in terms of results either. The article should be simpler, there is an incredible number of variables evaluated here, which corresponds to the length of the article. The article is difficult to digest until the discussion clarifies the whole topic.
Check the English again, I found few typos.

We agree with Reviewer’s opinion that a manuscript is long and contains a large number of evaluated characteristics, both directly measured and computed. We would like to stress that the key matter of the manuscript is much more complicated that frequently presented in published papers in this scientific field. In fact, it is extremely difficult to define a factor which could be used as a reliable criterion for division of a given field into zones significantly differing in productivity.

• In order to increase visibility and readability of the manuscript, we have undertaken actions in following areas:
• A manuscript has been corrected by Mr. Robert Kippen, an Englishman, working at present as a lecturer at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.
• The used abbreviations have been checked and corrected in order to avoid misunderstandings, including the text, tables and figures.
• The large description of PCA calculation procedure has been removed from the MM section of a manuscript.
• The set of formula presented in the MM section has been checked and corrected, if it was necessary.
• The Result chapter has been corrected and shortened (- 5 500 marks). There was removed too detailed description of spatial data distribution, i.e. their normality.
• There have been removed some sentences weakly related to the main topic of the presented study.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Very interesting research. I have marked minor mistakes in the text. Important importance in modern agriculture.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Revision 3

            All comments made by the reviewer have been taken into account. The respective corrections have been inserted directly in the text, tables and figures.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf