Comprehensive Utilization of Land Resources for Photovoltaic Power Generation to Culture Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis): Growth Performance, Nutritional Composition and Tissue Color
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Review of ‘Comprehensive utilization of land resources for photovoltaic power generation to culture Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis): Growth performance, nutritional composition and tissue color’ by Yangyang Pang, Chao Niu, Lifeng Wu, Yameng Song, Xiaozhe Song, Aoya Shi, Xingliang Shi, Zongwen Wu, Boping Tang, Xiaozhen Yang, and Yongxu Cheng.
The authors conducted an interesting comparative study to reveal the effects of photovoltaic panels located in the farming area on the growth performance, color, and proximate composition in edible tissues of the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis). They found some differences in the studied parameters as follows weight gain rate, body length, body width and meat yield in male crabs as well as moisture of muscles, hepatopancreas and testes from the photovoltaic group were higher while the total lipids of the hepatopancreas and muscles were lower than in the control group. Some differences both positive and negative in terms of nutrition quality and attractiveness for consumers were found for amino acid and fatty acid contents as well as color properties. This study highlights the importance of trade-offs between crab farming and photovoltaic power generation and provides new insights into the possible effects of photovoltaic panels on cultivated crabs and final products.
Unfortunately, there is a serious concern in this paper regarding the data presentation: the authors did not include tables in the text that does not allow assessing the content of this paper. Additionally, the discussion should be expanded by comparisons of the authors' data on the chemical compositions of Chinese mitten crabs with other crab species.
Abstract.
The abstract is long and overloaded with unnecessary information. I suggest shortening to 200-250 words.
Pg 1 Ln 34: Suggest changing ‘DHA’ to ‘docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)’
Pg 1 Ln 39: Suggest changing ‘fatty acid composition’ to ‘the fatty acid composition’
Pg 1 Ln 61: Suggest changing ‘there was a lack of research’ to ‘there is a lack of information’
Introduction
Pg 1 Ln 57: Suggest changing ‘were considering using’ to ‘have considered the use of’
Pg 2 Ln 68: Suggest changing ‘generate their’ to ‘generate its’
Pg 2 Ln 77: Suggest changing ‘needed’ to ‘need’
Pg 2 Ln 91: Suggest changing ‘fatty acid’ to ‘fatty acids’
Pg 3 Ln 102: Suggest changing ‘The above’ to ‘The mentioned’
Methods
The authors should provide a map of the study area or coordinates.
Pg 3 Ln 139: Suggest changing ‘total’ to ‘the total’
Pg 4 Ln 149: Suggest changing ‘all crabs of’ to ‘all crabs from the’
Pg 4 Ln 167: Suggest changing ‘have been further used’ to ‘were used’
Pg 4 Ln 187: Suggest changing ‘The one-way analysis’ to ‘A one-way analysis’
Pg 4 Ln 189: Suggest changing ‘must be tested’ to ‘were tested’
Results
Pg 4 Ln 195: Suggest changing ‘that is,’ to ‘i.e.,’
Pg 5 Ln 208: Suggest changing ‘among the three groups’ to ‘between groups’
Pg 5 Ln 202: Suggest changing ‘decreased’ to ‘lower’
Pg 6 Ln 225: Suggest changing ‘The above’ to ‘These’
Tables 1-7 are cited but not included in the text.
Pg 6 Ln 241: Suggest changing ‘groups’ to ‘group’
Pg 7 Ln 262: Suggest changing ‘is significantly’ to ‘are significantly’
Pg 7 Ln 266: Suggest changing ‘is significantly’ to ‘are significantly’
Pg 7 Ln 267: Suggest changing ‘was the lower’ to ‘was lower’
Pg 7 Ln 268: Suggest changing ‘exhibited’ to ‘assayed’
Pg 7 Ln 275: Suggest changing ‘might affect the affect’ to ‘might affect’
Pg 7 Ln 276: Suggest changing ‘were higher than the’ to ‘were higher than in the’
Discussion.
Pg 8 Ln 316: Suggest changing ‘were significantly decreased’ to ‘significantly decreased’
Pg 8 Ln 330: Suggest changing ‘the 3.1 section’ to ‘sub-section 3.1’
The authors should compare the chemical composition of their crabs to data available for other crab species.
Barrento, S., Marques, A., Teixeira, B., Anacleto, P., Vaz-Pires, P., Nunes, M. L., 2009. Effect of season on the chemical composition and nutritional quality of the edible crab Cancer pagurus. J. Agric. Food Chem. 57, 10814–10824.
Bayraklı B. 2021. Monthly Variations in proximate composition, fatty acid quality and amino acid score of warty crab, Eriphia verrucosa (Forsskal, 1775) from the Southern Coast of Black Sea, Turkey. Pakistan J. Zool. 53(5), 1729–1741
Dvoretsky, A.G., Bichkaeva, F.A., Baranova, N.F., Dvoretsky, V.G., 2020. Fatty acid composition in the hepatopancreas of the Barents Sea red king crab. Biol. Bull. 47, 332–338.
Dvoretsky, A.G., Bichkaeva, F.A., Baranova, N.F., Dvoretsky, V.G., 2021. Fatty acid composition of the Barents Sea red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) leg meat. J. Food Compos. Anal. 98, 103826.
Mandume, C.C.M., Bandarra, N.M., Raimundo, J., Lourenço, H.M., Gonçalves, S., Ventura, M., Delgado, I., Rego, A., Motta, C., Castanheira, I., Nunes, M.L., Duarte, M.P., 2019. Chemical composition, nutritional value, and safety of cooked female Chaceon maritae from Namibe (Angola). Foods 8, 227.
Marques, A., Teixeira, B., Barrento, S., Anacleto, P., Carvalho, M. L., Nunes, M. L., 2010. Chemical composition of Atlantic spider crab Maja brachydactyla: Human health implications. J. Food Compos. Anal. 23, 230–237.
Skonberg, D. I., Perkins, B. L., 2002. Nutrient composition of green crab (Carcinus maenus) leg meat and claw meat. Food Chem. 77, 401–404.
Conclusions.
Pg 9 Ln 401: Suggest changing “fatty acid’ to “the fatty acid’
Pg 10 Ln 402: Suggest changing “there is needed’ to “there is a need’
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript is written clearly. The research subject is interesting and highly relevant.
However, the text of the manuscript should be supplemented with additional information and explanations:
1. It would be appropriate to supplement the manuscript with a graphic/sketch showing research ponds with PV panels.
2. The physical parameters of water modified by the influence of PV panels are an integral and important part of the conducted research and might play a significant role in the obtained results. Therefore, it is necessary to cite them, at least as general information, in the manuscript submitted for review. It's not enough to point to another publication where the above results are presented in detail. These results are partially cited in the discussion, however, for the clarity of the presented study in the manuscript, water parameters should be cited in the description of the study in the "Animal culture" section.
3. An additional question is whether covering a part of the tank with PV panels affected the physical parameters of water throughout the whole tank. Did the authors conduct comparative studies of physical water parameters in adjacent tanks that were not covered with PV panels?
4. Please clarify in the manuscript whether monitoring the growth performance was conducted on 120 individuals from the control group and 120 individuals from the study group.
5. A study of 10 individuals of each sex is not sufficient to give a representative research result, especially for a population of 4 x 128 individuals. Hence, the study should be regarded as a pilot, preliminary one. In addition, there is a lack of information on how the individuals were selected for the study, i.e. whether they represented populations from both ponds and all 4 net enclosures for each group.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors revised their paper according to my recommendations.
Well done.
