Linear Relationship of a Soil Total Water Potential Function and Relative Yield—A Technique to Control Salinity and Water Stress on Golf Courses and Other Irrigated Fields

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The abstract, methodology, results and conclusions were good. Some suggestions and comments were directly carried out on the attached manuscript to be examined by the researcher. There were few grammatical errors or spelling mistakes in the manuscript. Some references were not current. For instance, some literatures were capture in the work as far as 1958 and 1984. In summary, a good work has been established but need some modifications. 

The researcher used the salinity model, the soil water retention model and the matric potential approach to reach out the objectives of the work.

The experimental turfgrass fields were established in several golf courses and other lawn fields in Faro, Algarve, Portugal. Horticultural crops (lettuce and cabbage) experiments were carried out in the University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal; Sunflower experimental plots were conducted in Evora, Portugal; Corn forage fields were established in the National Agricultural Research Station, Oeiras, Portugal; and grain corn experimental plots were carried out in the Ramat Negev Agro-research Center, Ashalim, North Negev, Israel. The researcher included their geographic coordinates to the work making the work of reviewers very simple.

The researcher made good references to Sprinkler and trickle irrigation systems under randomized blocks or point/line source techniques which was used for the water application with a precise irrigation water distribution to enrich the work. Tables and figures were well connected in the work.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your useful and necessary comments on the work.

Best regards,

Gulom Bekmirzaev

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

General comments:

-In general, this manuscript has a valuable topic. The topic is scientific sounds. Unfortunately, this work lacks the suitable experimental design. Very little data were provided and no discussion for the outcome data. Therefore, this manuscript needs serious modification and extra results to be done before considering for publication.

-There are some major comments.

Detailed comments:

Introduction:

This section doesn’t provide enough background about the topic. I see that the introduction is very poor. This section needs to be enriched and provided with more background about the topic.

Materials and Methods:

The experimental design was not adequate to the current study.

Results:

The results were very little, more results need to be added to this work in order to be more valuable.

Discussion:

I had a hard time to make the connection between your results and to relate them to the previous, similar research.

-Please rewrite this section in more organized way and relate to the data in tables and figures carefully with a comparison to the previous studies.

If it is easier to discuss the results clearly and thoroughly, the author is advised to combine the results and the discussion in one section for the best presentation and discussion to the results.

Conclusion:

This section provides a good conclusion for the study and includes the significant findings. Although little results were provided, this section was supported by the provided results. Also provided a recommendation for the general application of the technique and tools used in this study.

References:

The authors provided enough citations, and it was UpToDate.

 The current manuscript can be considered as a preliminary data about this topic. Better experimental design and extra results need to be done to improve this manuscript.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your useful and necessary comments on the work.

Best regards,

Gulom Bekmirzaev

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I am satiafied with the author response. The author also did a great job to improve the manuscript. considering the scientific value, I am convinced that this manuscript is now suitable for publication.