A Novel Approach to Evaluate the Effect of Neighboring Trees and the Orientation of Tree Social Area on Stem Radial Increment of Norway Spruce Trees

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper point out the effect of social area on radial growth in Norway spruce. Even if there are already published papers on this regard, here are used new variables to describe the dynamic. The research gives new insights which need to be considerate in tree growth models. However, there are revisions to be made. Specific comments are attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Authors would like to thanks to Reviewer 1 for valuable comments. We believe, that they made manuscript understandable, readable and clearer for other researchchers and practitioners. We already incorporated comments in resubmission. We appeciated the effort that Reviewer 1 helped us to improve the manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper presents very interesting and valuable findings concerning the radial increment of Norway spruce and factors affecting it. Authors showed that the shape and orientation of tree social area plays a significant role in tree growth dynamics. They found that trees with the lowest competition from the west showed the highest relative radial increment, while the lowest competition from the east leads to the suppressed growth. Moreover, the authors proposed a simple and effective method of tree social area assessment. The authors fully answered the reviewers’ comments and made all necessary corrections.

Author Response

Authors would like to thank to Reviewer 2 for evaluating of our manuscript. We believe, that the process of evaluation made manuscript understandable, readable and clearer for other researchchers and practitioners. We appeciated the effort that Reviewer 2 helped us to improve the manuscript.