Assessment of Above-Ground Biomass in Pakistan Forest Ecosystem’s Carbon Pool: A Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Carbon pools study is significant to understand the ecosystem services. This review paper could help the researcher to understand the current status and gaps in Above-Ground Biomass research in Pakistan. However, in this reviewed manuscript, other carbon pools (below-ground biomass, soil organic carbon, litters, and deadwood) were not considered during the review process by the author(s).

Please make sure all dash, font size, space, a hyphen, en dash, and capital words would be appropriate throughout the manuscript.

Please make sure the font size in figures and tables.

Line 50-51: As the author (s) mentioned, “Forest consists of five carbon pools; above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, soil organic carbon, litters, and deadwood- why the author(s) only reviewed only Above-Ground Biomass research in Pakistan. Any specific region?

Table 2 is not well prepared.

How author(s) collected these research articles? No systematic method was presented.

It would be better if the author(s) can add figures/maps/tables to explain the Carbon stock estimation status of each provision in Pakistan.

What is the source of figure 1?

Need to add a recent forest cover map of Pakistan for better understanding.

Please check the references according to Journal Guideline.  

Author Response

Dear Sir/Madam

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

General comments

This research deals with important aspects relative to the studies conducted on above-ground biomass and carbon stock in various forest types of Pakistan.

The findings show the below:

The non-destructive method is mostly followed for carbon stock estimation, followed by remote sensing. The destructive method is used only for developing allometric equations and biomass expansion factors. The information available on carbon stock and biomass of Pakistan forest types are fragmented and sporadic. Coniferous forests are more important in carbon sequestration and can play a vital role in mitigating climate change. Pakistan is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol and still lacks regional and national level studies on biomass and carbon stock, which is necessary for reporting under the Kyoto Protocol.

Comments

• Moderate English changes required.
• Cross-reference all of the citations in the text with the references in the reference section.
• Make sure that all references have a corresponding citation within the text and vice versa.
• Double-check the spelling of the author names and dates and make sure they are correct and consistent with the citations.
• Spell out all journal titles in the reference section.
• Make sure that all figures and tables are cited within the text and they are cited in consecutive order.

Author Response

Dear Sir/ Madam

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Please make sure all dash, font size, space, a hyphen, en dash, and capital words would be appropriate throughout the manuscript.

Please make sure the font size in the figures.

Why figure 2 has two same graphs?

Please re-adjust figure 3 and line 649-565 according to journal guidelines. 

It would be better if the author(s) can add figures/maps/tables to explain the Carbon stock estimation status of each provision in Pakistan (Answer by author (s): The respected reviewer suggestion is highly appreciable. But to avoid duplication, it is explained thoroughly in manuscript text). 

I do not think so. What you wrote in the text, can be explained by a figure or table for better and clear understanding.