Growth Responses and Accumulation Characteristics of Three Ornamental Plants to Sn Contamination in Soil
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors propose a manuscript titled “Growth responses and accumulation characteristics of three ornamental plants to Sn contamination in soil”
The article is original, well structured and written. In particular, the Authors analyzes on a useful topic for application purposes, considering ornamental plants for accumulating Sn in contaminated soil. Below are indicated some few revisions useful for a further improvement the manuscript. After these few suggestions, the work may be published.
Row: 21st century
Rows 69-70. The author sentence. “However, phytoremediation of Sn was rarely studied since less toxicity of Sn element compared with other heavy metals, like Cd, Cr, Cu and etc.”. Please add 2 the follow references of this sentence:
Perrino E. V.; Brunetti, G.; Farrag, K. Plant communities of multi-metal contaminated soils: a case study in National Park of Alta Murgia (Apulia Region - southern Italy). International Journal of Phytoremediation 2014, 16, 871-888. DI 10.1080/15226514.2013.798626
Liu, J.; Xin, X.; Zhou, Q. Phytoremediation of contaminated soils using ornamental plants. Environmental Reviews 2018, 26. DI 10.1139/er-2017-0022
Rows 73-76. The authors choose this three ornamental plants: Impatiens balsamina, Mirabilis jalapa and Tagetes erecta. I agree but few words about the wild three plants that grow in the same studied area, and if they have the same bioaccumulation characteristics. Only if the authors have data about it.
Row 73. Impatiens balsamina, Mirabilis jalapa and Tagetes erecta. Please complete with the author/s name when cite for the first time the scientific name. i.e. Impatiens balsamina L.
Row 90. Please clarify which is annual or perennial species or cut this period and explain after in the discussion. It’s a confused period.
Row 133. Please specify the version of ANOVA
Row 141. Mirabilis jalapa (in italic)
Table 1. Please cut a row below Impatients balsamina
Row 288, 290-292. The authors declare that “…Impatiens balsamina and Mirabilis jalapa… In addition, these plants adapt to high concentrations of various heavy metals, so they are potential candidates to those Sn mining tailings or contaminated soils which Sn usually coexisted with multiple heavy metal contaminants”. Plase two rows about a relationship with some other plant species that have the better.
Author Response
The authors propose a manuscript titled “Growth responses and accumulation characteristics of three ornamental plants to Sn contamination in soil”. The article is original, well structured and written. In particular, the Authors analyze on a useful topic for application purposes, considering ornamental plants for accumulating Sn in contaminated soil. Below are indicated some few revisions useful for a further improvement the manuscript. After these few suggestions, the work may be published.
YX – We thank the reviewer for his/her positive and helpful comments. We now have answered the reviewer’s comments point by point and revised the manuscript accordingly.
Row: 21st century
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Rows 69-70. The author sentence. “However, phytoremediation of Sn was rarely studied since less toxicity of Sn element compared with other heavy metals, like Cd, Cr, Cu and etc.”. Please add 2 the follow references of this sentence:
Perrino E. V.; Brunetti, G.; Farrag, K. Plant communities of multi-metal contaminated soils: a case study in National Park of Alta Murgia (Apulia Region - southern Italy). International Journal of Phytoremediation 2014, 16, 871-888. DI 10.1080/15226514.2013.798626
Liu, J.; Xin, X.; Zhou, Q. Phytoremediation of contaminated soils using ornamental plants. Environmental Reviews 2018, 26. DI 10.1139/er-2017-0022
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Rows 73-76. The authors choose this three ornamental plants: Impatiens balsamina, Mirabilis jalapa and Tagetes erecta. I agree but few words about the wild three plants that grow in the same studied area, and if they have the same bioaccumulation characteristics. Only if the authors have data about it.
YX - The change has been made accordingly.
Row 73. Impatiens balsamina, Mirabilis jalapa and Tagetes erecta. Please complete with the author/s name when cite for the first time the scientific name. i.e. Impatiens balsamina L.
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Row 90. Please clarify which is annual or perennial species or cut this period and explain after in the discussion. It’s a confused period.
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Row 133. Please specify the version of ANOVA
YX - The change has been made accordingly.
Row 141. Mirabilis jalapa (in italic)
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Table 1. Please cut a row below Impatients balsamina.
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Row 288, 290-292. The authors declare that “…Impatiens balsamina and Mirabilis jalapa… In addition, these plants adapt to high concentrations of various heavy metals, so they are potential candidates to those Sn mining tailings or contaminated soils which Sn usually coexisted with multiple heavy metal contaminants”. Plase two rows about a relationship with some other plant species that have the better.
YX – We have rewritten above two sentences to “Especially for Impatiens balsamina and Mirabilis jalapa, either accumulated more than 100 mg/kg of Sn in plant tissue or showed high translocation ability (TF > 1), and have been characterized as hyperaccumulators/phytoremediators to Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn and As, so they are potential phytoremediators to those Sn mining tailings or contaminated soils which Sn usually coexisted with multiple heavy metal contaminants”.
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors did an excellent job with the study. The abstract was very well written and the introduction set a very sound background with clearly stated objectives for the study. The materials and methods section was very well written. Results were clearly presented in Tables and Figures, and very well discussed. The conclusions of the research were very well drawn with recommendations for further research on the "molecular mechanisms of bioaccumulation and translocation of Sn to plants, and also find appropriate biodegradable chelators or methods to enhance the Sn phytoremediation efficiency." Congratulations to the authors on excellent research and a very well written manuscript.
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for his/her positive comments. We have checked the english writing of the manuscript carefully and revised some minor spell errors. See details in manuscript. Thank you.
Reviewer 3 Report
The aim of the present study was to investigate the toxicity and accumulation of Sn to plants, thus tried to search potential hyperaccumulators/phytoremediators of Sn element.
In terms of the methodology, the experiment was established correctly.
The research results have been tabulated and analyzed together with the discussion that was based on current literature on this problem.
All literature items have been cited.
suggest writing the oxidation state of the element in this way: +II, +IV
Line 46, 49, 56, 59 – there is no numbering from the list of references
Line 119 , subscript for acid formula
I suggest you add the Mathematical Model Formula
Some items from the bibliography do not conform to the journal's technical specifications
Author Response
The aim of the present study was to investigate the toxicity and accumulation of Sn to plants, thus tried to search potential hyperaccumulators/phytoremediators of Sn element. In terms of the methodology, the experiment was established correctly. The research results have been tabulated and analyzed together with the discussion that was based on current literature on this problem. All literature items have been cited.
YX – We thank the reviewer for his/her positive and helpful comments. We now have answered the reviewer’s comments point by point and revised the manuscript accordingly.
Suggest: writing the oxidation state of the element in this way: +II, +IV.
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Line 46, 49, 56, 59 – there is no numbering from the list of references.
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Line 119 - subscript for acid formula.
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
I suggest you add the Mathematical Model Formula.
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
Some items from the bibliography do not conform to the journal's technical specifications
YX – The change has been made accordingly.
