Impact of Saline Water Irrigation on Soil Salinity, Growth, and Productivity of Triticale in Sandy Soil
, Kristina Toderich 3,4, Jean Bosco Nana 5 and Asad S. Qureshi 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript by El Baki et al. is interesting and important topic emphasizing the role of saline water on Triticale productivity in sandy soil for marginal regions with restricted freshwater availability.
Introduction section must be improved to justify the shortcomings in previous researches and need of the present study
In Line 105: Soil types and properties should be provided
Line 129-130: 1g soil: 2g water?? 2g water???
In Figure 3 legends spellings of humidity need correction
Methods used in the Materials and Methods section were either used for the first time or used by the scientists in the earlier studies. If you are using earlier study methods then you must give proper citations of previous work.
Why the authors used only one variety for this experiment that too was moderately sensitive to salinity stress?
What was the reason to collect soil samples at 10, 37, 58, 93, and 134 not at even regular intervals?
Why only 50 mM and 150 mM NaCl concentrations were selected where you can select 50 mM, 100 mM, and 150 mM
Statistical Analysis section should be provided separately
Page 8 contains several italicized words that should be non-italicized
Discussion should be improved with more researches should be discussed with the present study and should be consistent throughout the section
Line 322 needs correction with scientist names
Conclusion needs revision as it is similar to the Abstract
Reference section should be improved as 4 and 38 references requires improvement
Author Response
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Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsRetrial after modification
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
better
Author Response
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Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authorsthe research topic is very important and the paper can be a good contribution to the literature with the modifications suggested below. Huge part of the world suffers from saline water due to sea water intrusions, over-pumping and salinity build up.
i share few areas that needs to be addressed:
- there are some critical papers addressing this subject that are not included. these will improve the paper:
- Tahtouh, J., Mohtar, R., Assi, A., Schwab, P., Jantrania, A., Deng, Y., & Munster, C. (2019). Impact of brackish groundwater and treated wastewater on soil chemical and mineralogical properties. Science of the Total Environment 647 (2019) 99–109. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.200.
- acknowledge the impact of salinity on soil structure and water holding properties since this will impact production and will explain some of the reduction in yield. This is important to acknowledge even if the research only stresses on growth and yield. The following papers explain that.
- Blake, A.T. Assi, R.H. Mohtar, E.F. Braudeau, C.L.S. Morgan (2019) Quantification of Available Water Capacity Comparing Standard Methods and a Pedostructure Method on a Weakly Structured SoilTransactions of the ASABE, 2019. Vol. 62:(2):289-301. ISSN 2151-0032.
- there are tradeoffs in this research between production, use of fresh water and saline water. this tradeoff will impact the future of the food system. this needs t be acknowledged as a back drop of the need to establish the data on yield and salinity etc. a good reference for that is:
SH Lee, AT Assi, RH Mohtar, M Hamane, PR Yoon, SH Yoo. 2023. Development of WEF-P Nexus based on product-supply chain: A Case Study of Phosphorous Fertilizer Industry in Morocco. Science of the Total Environment. 857 doi: 159520. 12 pages
On another note, framing the soil moisture as a total potential comprising of osmotic and matric can be useful to understand the soil moisture level to reduce plant stress.
the paper should include some insights on how to manage salinity for plant production and environmental quality,
Any papers recommended in the report are for reference only. They are not mandatory. You may cite and reference other papers related to this topic.
Author Response
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Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAgree to publish
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We have improved the introduction section based on your suggestions by including two more references
27 and 28 (lines 73-77). We did not provide more references to avoid lengthy introduction and ensure
its consistency. We have corrected the references numbering as well and added the details of the two newly
inserted references into lines (475-479). All are highlighted in yellow color.
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authorsthe paper is significantly improved, much appreciated, There are few comments that I suggest to revisit:
- "Regarding the effect on soil structure, it may not be detectable since we used sandy soil"
this is not nessessarily true, sandy soil has less but they do shrink and swell. so the comment is valid for all soils.
2. the tradeoff analysis is important in using the non traditional water, the reference provided is a guide to the tradeoff analysis protocol and not for the application it self.
3. it is important to look at water stress is compounded with moisture and osmotic and they are additive.
Author Response
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