Effect of Seaweed Extract Supplement on Rice Rhizosphere Bacterial Community in Tillering and Heading Stages
, Cheng-Gang Ren 1, Jian-Chao Yang 3, Da-Wei Feng 1, Ning Liu 3, Jun Yan 4, Bi-Bo Cui 4, Zhi-Hai Zhong 1, Qing-Quan Li 1, Zhi-Dan Liu 2 and Zheng-Yi Liu 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The current manuscript (ID: agronomy-1571454) under the title “Effect of seaweed extract supplement on rice rhizosphere bacterial community in tillering and heading stages” is a short-term experiment in a paddy field of japonica rice using four treatments, two of them using seaweed Sargassum horneri extract, that prepared by biological fermentation of Bacillus Litoralis. The manuscript is well presented and added value in this important field.
One of the most needed in the introduction is the recent literature about the importance of seaweed extracts, the novelty of bioactive compounds of commercial seaweed extracts which improve the growth, yields, immunity, and antioxidant activities of experimented species, even plants or animals. In this regard, I suggest the recent studies that may be useful:-
doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11040320
doi.org/10.3390/plants10061045
In the conclusion section, as the authors mentioned, I encourage authors in their future work to touch, define, and study the profiles of bioactive compounds of the seaweed extracts prepared by biological fermentation of Bacillus Litoralis. Finally, the suggested minor revisions are listed below in the attached revised pdf.
All the best.
The Reviewer #
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for your professional work and valuable comments for our manuscript (ID:agronomy-1571454), which make a difference in improvement of my manuscript. In order to make a good revision, I will split your comments, arrange them by serial number, and revise them one by one and reply them, as shown in the yellow background and blue words in the revised version.
Point 1.One of the most needed in the introduction is the recent literature about the importance of seaweed extracts, the novelty of bioactive compounds of commercial seaweed extracts which improve the growth, yields, immunity, and antioxidant activities of experimented species, even plants or animals. In this regard, I suggest the recent studies that may be useful:-
doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11040320
doi.org/10.3390/plants10061045
Response 1: Thank you for your valuable recommendation, and I read the references carefully. Seaweed extracts are widely used in agriculture, aquaculture, food and medical industry. In agricultural application, it was reported that seaweed extract can improve growth, productivity, quality and resistance of crops due to its rich nutrients and bioactive compounds (i.e., polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, plant hormones). Therefore, we added sentences in Line 59-63,66-69, 73-79, 103-104.
Point 2. In the conclusion section, as the authors mentioned, I encourage authors in their future work to touch, define, and study the profiles of bioactive compounds of the seaweed extracts prepared by biological fermentation of Bacillus Litoralis.
Response 2: Thanks for your wonderful suggestion for studying the profiles of bioactive compounds(i.e., polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, cytokinin, auxin ) of the seaweed extracts. We also regard it as an important and useful field of seaweed extract, and we also take it into consideration in our further study. Therefore, we add some words in the conclusion(line 444-446) about analysis of bioactive components in seaweed extract.
Point 3.Line 119.
Response 3: Thank you for your kind reminding, the error m2 was changed into a right form m2.
Point 4.Line 121. Change root to roots.
Response 4: Thank you for your kind reminding, the error root was replaced by a right form 'roots'.
Point 5. Table 1.
Response 5: Thanks for your professional work, we deleted the letters in Table 1(Line 135) and add table footer “The data in Table 1 represent mean ± SD (n=3), and there are no significant differences between treatments at the level of P<0.05"(line 138-139).
Point 6. Please noted that there is no refer to Table 2 in the text.
Response 6: Thank you for your reminding, we add refer to Table 2 in line 141.
Point 7. Line 162, 180, 185, 190. Make it as subtitle or For alpha diversity and beta diversity, ......... As well as, the rest of Statistical analyses.
Response 7: Thanks for your careful work. We changed the description one by one.
Point 8.Line 196, 198.
Response 8: We changed 1 240 607 to 1,240,607, 9 813 to 9813.
Point 9.Line 256. Fig.5, Line 277. Fig.6. Please, replace (a) and (b) with high resolution Figs.
Response 9: We replaced Fig.5 and Fig.6 with higher resolution.
Point 10. Line 334. Delete, please, follow the journal formats.
Response 10: Thank you for reminding. The wrong format ' (2019)' was deleted.
Thank you for your help!
Looking forward your further reply and also some good news!
Best regards,
Chunlin Chen
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear authors,
The manuscript entitled: "Effect of seaweed extract supplement on rice rhizosphere bacterial community in tillering and heading stages" deals with an interesting and important topic. Soil degradation due to the excessive use of chemical fertilizers is a global problem. The application of seaweed is one of the progressive and ecological solutions to this critical situation.
The manuscript is written at a high level, it positively evaluates both the number of monitored treatments and the quantitative and qualitative analyses performed. Relevant statistical methods were used to evaluate the experiment.
However, I also have a few comments and suggestions on the manuscript:
The authors did not sufficiently explain in the manuscript why Rhizosphere microbiota were also applied foliar during vegetation. This is an unconventional solution.
In the context of the results of this experiment, the question arises as to whether it would not be more appropriate to examine the long-term effect. It would be interesting to see if the yield of succeeding crops shows an increased content of rhizosphere microorganisms.
L23 I recommend changing to "to modify dose of chemical fertilizer" or changing the whole sentence. The fertilizer itself has not been modified!
L98-100 This part is mentioned above in the abstract as well as in MM. I recommend skipping.
I recommend adding information to the MM about which experimental design was chosen to set up the experiment.
L108 400m2 (upper index)
In Table 2, in the description of fertilizer doses, I recommend using g instead of kg
For Figure 3, please check that the designation of differences between the variants are correct. Especially for N and K!
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for your professional work and valuable comments for our manuscript (ID: agronomy-1571454), which make a difference in improvement of my manuscript. In order to make a good revision, the comments were arranged by serial number, and I will reply them one by one, as shown in the yellow background and red words in the revised version.
Point 1. The authors did not sufficiently explain in the manuscript why Rhizosphere microbiota were also applied foliar during vegetation. This is an unconventional solution.
Response 1: Thank you for your careful work, in this study, we used spray-drying seaweed extract powder as a supplement(line 145-146), and all the fertilization were applied by root application rather than foliar spray. The related details were already added to the revised manuscript(line 148-149).
Point 2. In the context of the results of this experiment, the question arises as to whether it would not be more appropriate to examine the long-term effect. It would be interesting to see if the yield of succeeding crops shows an increased content of rhizosphere microorganisms.
Response 2: Thank you for this valuable suggestion, and we totally agree with your opinion. The results in the present study revealed that short term application of seaweed extract supplement could influence the richness and diversity of rhizosphere microorganism of rice, and seaweed supplement potentially improve soil nutrients and rice productivity. This study really inspires our interest for further long-term study on the relationship between productivity of crops and rhizosphere microbes. And we add some words in line 425-429.
Point 3. I recommend changing to "to modify dose of chemical fertilizer" or changing the whole sentence. The fertilizer itself has not been modified!
Response 3: Thanks for your kind suggestion, we replace the description of modify/modification by supplement in the revised version.
Point 4. Line 98-100(Original version). This part is mentioned above in the abstract as well as in MM. I recommend skipping.
Response 4: Thank you for your kind advice, and we delete the description in the revised manuscript.
Point 5. I recommend adding information to the MM about which experimental design was chosen to set up the experiment.
Response 5: Thank you for your reminding, we add our experimental design (randomized block design) in revised manuscript in line 117.
Point 6. Line 119(Revised version).
Response 6: Thank you for your kind reminding. We corrected the error '400m2' to 400 m2 (upper index).
Point 7. In Table 2, in the description of fertilizer doses, I recommend using g instead of kg
Response 7: We totally accepted your suggestion, and we use g as the description of fertilizer doses.
Point 8. For Figure 3, please check that the designation of differences between the variants are correct. Especially for N and K!
Response 8: Thank you for professional work, we carefully considered the selected data again and did some change in Fig.3, as shown in the revised manuscript.
Thank you for your help!
Looking forward your further reply and also some good news!
Best regards,
Chunlin Chen
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
