Potential of Scots Pine for a Push Strategy against the European Spruce Bark Beetle Ips typographus

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The European spruce bark beetle is a notorious pest, posing a significant threat to forests, and its outbreak has drawn extensive attention worldwide. One viable option for management is chemical-based pest control strategy. In this study, Favoro et al explored and investigated the potential of utilizing Scots pine, an unfavorable host for the pest, as a push strategy against the beetle. Additionally, they also primarily investigated the underlying chemical mechanisms involved. Overall, the manuscript is well-structured，presenting solid methods and robot results. I genuinely admire the authors’ efforts. I have only several minor suggestions and concerns, which are detailed below.

 

1)     Lines 65-66, references are needed here.

2)     Line 73, the conversion of chemical verbenone from cis-verbenol by microbes has also been reported in other bark beetles. Although the main focus of this study is on Ips, acknowledging the broader context of similar findings in other bark beetles enhances the understanding of the topic. Gut-Associated Bacteria of Dendroctonus valens and their Involvement in Verbenone Production.

3)     Lines 79-82, this sentence is redundant with the rest part of the paragraph. Delete it or rephase.

4)     Lines 90-93, as for me, I prefer to merge the two paragraphs into one.

5)     Line 138, why did the authors dry the materials for 24hrs at this particular temperature?

6)     Figure 4, why did the authors use two different presentation modes, scatter and bar plots?

7)     Line 359, plant associated bacteria may have the capability.

Author Response

Comments to reviewer #1

We thank the reviewer for appreciating our effort and the valuable suggestions they provided.

• Lines 65-66, references are needed here.

We agree with the reviewer, a reference was needed. We added the review from Schlyter (2012).

• Line 73, the conversion of chemical verbenone from cis-verbenol by microbes has also been reported in other bark beetles. Although the main focus of this study is on Ips, acknowledging the broader context of similar findings in other bark beetles enhances the understanding of the topic. Gut-Associated Bacteria of Dendroctonus valens and their Involvement in Verbenone Production.

Verbenone is indeed a multi-specific pheromone among bark beetles. We broadened the sentence and included the suggested reference.

• Lines 79-82, this sentence is redundant with the rest part of the paragraph. Delete it or rephase.

We agree that the sentence wasn’t adding much to the concept. Therefore, we deleted it.

• Lines 90-93, as for me, I prefer to merge the two paragraphs into one.

We understand the reviewer’s point, but we’d prefer to keep it separated. The last paragraph wraps into few lines the study aim, and thus it can be easily catch at a first glance by a quick reading.

• Line 138, why did the authors dry the materials for 24hrs at this particular temperature?

 Thank you for pointing out an unclear passage. The material was dried in order to be processed by a laboratory mill and obtain finer material for the extraction. We added this in L138. Concerning the temperature, we have arbitrarily chosen a temperature that allows to remove the water in a short time without losing too much of the VOCs for volatilization or oxidation.

• Figure 4, why did the authors use two different presentation modes, scatter and bar plots?

The two plots are different to emphasize the fact that they represent different things. The dots are the number of entries in the arm (count, discrete values), while the bars are the time spent in the arms (continuous values). During the draft preparation we feared that using the same plot type might have been misleading and we sincerely hope we successfully managed to deliver this concept.

• Line 359, plant associated bacteria may have the capability.

The reviewer’s suggestion sounds plausible, but we failed to find references supporting it, and we therefore did not mention this point in the manuscript. We remain open to further indications.

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for your interesting submission to Forests, 'Potential of Scots pine for a push strategy against the European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus'.

I have made several comments throughout the manuscript. I occasionally could not grasp the meaning of a statement, so I asked for clarification or suggested rephrasing. 

This is interesting research with potential practical applications. I look forward to continued research in the development of push-pull strategies for Ips typographus to support forest health management. I suggest briefly elaborating on future research and its potential applications, not only with I. typographus, but extrapolating to other bark beetles in Europe and beyond. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Overall the quality of English Language was good, and I could usually follow the author's intentions and interpretation of the results. within the Discussion. Occasionally, this was  clouded by either the sentence structure, choice of words, or vagueness. I asked for clarification in such instances. 

 

Author Response

Comments to reviewer #2

We thank the reviewer for their valuable corrections and suggestions, they surely contributed to improve our work. Some original sentences were actually quite unreadable. We added L440-443 on future research and potential applications with the intent to extend these findings also to other bark beetles.

We accepted all the reviewer’s suggestions and made modifications through the text according to them. On the last comment, made on previous L423-424, we were asked to elaborate the sentence “…there is need of preserve the healthy spruce trees beyond the first margin line.”. We realized that the sentence would require almost a manuscript by itself to be explain, as it is part of a tentative tactic for the beetle management. We therefore decided to remove it for clarity, giving us the chance to elaborate it in another work.