Enhancing Sustainability in Intensive Dill Cropping: Comparative Effects of Biobased Fertilizers vs. Inorganic Commodities on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Crop Yield, and Soil Properties

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article belongs to the agriculture applied science. The field experiment of 8 different fertilizer treatments with the same amount of nitrogen fertilizer were designed, the GHG emissions and biomass were continuously monitored. It has significant application value for screening low carbon emission fertilizers. Several minor problems are listed below,

 

1. The monitoring frequency in the later period is weekly. Please cite the refences. It can be seen from Fig. 3 that it may have a great impact on CO2 emission.

 

2. Add the legend of Figure 1, At present, there are 4 elements and 2 coordinates in the figure, which cannot to correspond one by one. It is not readable.

 

3. Please add the economic cost of 8 kinds of fertilization, which is a significant factor for agricultural application.

 

4. In the Introduction, add the research progresses of the status of agriculture GHG emissions caused by organic and inorganic fertilizer application, the mechanism and process of GHG emission, and the existed scientific problems.

 

5. Add the uncertainty analysis or research limitation in the last. For example, the impact of monitoring frequency and priming effect of rainfall on GHG emissions, possibility of fertilization technology promotion, potential of GHG emission reduction, etc.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript titled “Enhancing sustainability in intensive dill cropping: comparative effects of bio-based fertilizers vs. inorganic commodities on greenhouse gas emissions, crop yield, and soil properties” deal with a research topic that is interest for the Agronomy Journal readers. The authors used classical approaches to assess the effectiveness of novel fertilizers on greenhouse-gas emissions, dill yield and on soil's properties.  It is an original research, where is easy to identify efforts on data collection and analysis. The title looks adequate and attractive. However, the authors need to address some concerns before it gets the acceptance status. Here below I listed several major and minor concerns that need to address.

 

Major concerns:

1) The introduction is very short. Please, the authors must comprise some case studies to contrast the outcomes from this research.  Likewise, describe the research question.

2) The Methods section. There are some redaction problems. Figure 1. To identify the lines in the graph and add the respective caption (foot notes). Table 1. Add caption for the signatures (foot notes). The authors must describe in the experimental design the blocking factor. Table 2. Improve the presentation and add the correct caption for all variables. To improve the redaction of the statistical analysis, fin this order: ANOVA, means comparisons tests, normality issues, and software.

5) The results and discussion section must be presented separately in order to gaining more     details for each studied variable b the discussion is very weak in terms of thoroughly explanation. A deeply detailed explanation must be made to address the outcomes contrasted with other authors. The literature cited in the introduction section is not discussed. There are many current and stronger studies for being explored to improve the present manuscript. Do not start the results referring to tables or figures, instead show your main findings. Review all the signatures in the captions (foot notes). Example table 3. Please check the presentation of the tables.

 

6) What is the limitation of the present study? Please, provide one paragraph at the end of the discussion on the limitation of this study. What is the uncertainty of the usage of  bio based fertilizers?

 

7) The conclusions must be summarized focused on answering the research question.

 

Minor concerns:

Line 60. Change the word “combating” by facing climate change

Line 88. Provide de source of climate classification

Line 104 and 127. Change the word “session” by season

Line 208. Adjust the day 55 to day 57

Line 239. Change the word “control treatment” by just control

Line 284. Adjust the day 55 to day 57

Line 345. Review the word “methanotrophic process conditions” is it suitable?

 

 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have done good work.

Author Response

We sincerely appreciate your positive comments, thank you!