Permeable Organic Barriers as Effective Tools for Reducing Emissions of Nitrogen Compounds and PCBs from Manure to Groundwater

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have conducted an interesting experiment on the effect of organic barriers on nitrogen leaching. The results indicate that this low-cost technology is able to minimize nitrogen leaching to surface and groundwater. The results, including the identification of the denitrifying bacteria, are very interesting. Such studies are needed to support the development of (low-cost) measures.

Minor comments:

Line 44: Meat consumption and cattle densities decrease in some areas, e.g. Germany. Please clarify that by adding in most countries and add a reference for the statement.

I would prefer box plots with the median for figures 4 and 5; the negative concentrations are irritating.

Author Response

Please see attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Reviewer Report

The manuscript is well written and presents a very interesting and relevant topic. The English is smooth and generally clear; however, some revisions are necessary before the article can be accepted for publication. The following comments and suggestions are provided to improve the quality and clarity of the manuscript:

1. Line 80, 361: The term via should be written in italics.

2. Line 87: Please standardize the separator used between references — either a comma (,) or a semicolon (;) consistently throughout the text.

3. Section 3.1: The methodology section needs to be further detailed to allow reproducibility of the experiments.

4. Line 162: Please clarify what is meant by “DO” and “SPC.”

5. Figures 6 and 8: The gel images are of poor quality. Please improve the resolution and contrast to better present the results.

6. Line 325: The expression “(0.20 μ g L-1)” should be corrected by writing “–1” in superscript (μg L⁻¹).

7. Figure 7: The text and labels are blurry. Please improve the resolution and readability of this figure.

8. Figure 9: The yellow color used in the figure is not clearly visible. Please replace it with a more contrasting and readable color.

9. Figure 10: The heat map is too small. Please enlarge the figure to allow better visualization and interpretation of the results.

Overall, the manuscript has strong scientific value and potential for publication after major revisions addressing the points listed above.

 

Author Response

Please see attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

All the suggested comments are done.