Qualitative Anatomical Characteristics and Fiber Quality of Tapped Styrax sumatrana Wood Grown in North Sumatra, Indonesia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

-What is meant by "potential for development" (sentence 45 and 46)?

-What is meant by "intermediate differences between distinct and indistinct growth ring boundaries?' (Sentence 167 and 168)

-A single tree was used for the study (sentence 89). In sentence 92 and 93, it was stated that wood discs were collected from 10 year old trees. So how many trees were used for this study?

-According to the method, samples were collected from the sap portion of 10 year old tree (sentence 104, 105). When comparing the result with reference 17 (Pasaribu et al., 2013), it would have been better if age and sample collection part (sap/heartwood) have been mentioned.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Overall satisfactory. Need minor improvement.

Author Response

Dear reviewer

We have carefully studied the comments and made corrections, hoping to meet the reviewer's comments. The revised sentences were presented with yellow highlights. The point-by-point response to the reviewer's comment is in the attachment. 

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Keywords: Please change some of the keywords. Add new different keywords from the title of the paper. 

Introduction

I would recommend to indicate the other potential usage of Styrax spp.

I would recommend indicating the geographical distribution of Styrax spp.

Line 59-55: shorten the text. Most of the introduction focuses on the resin!

Line 66-73: what is your idea to state the sentences? Rewrite or delete them.

In general, the introduction should be completely revised. Most parts are not related to the topic. You should focus on the anatomical properties of different native wood species or at least ring-porous ones. There are no correlations between the abstract and the introduction.

 Material and methods:

I recommend adding photo(s) for the tree wood species studied.

"Here, 20 (L) × 20 (R) × 20 (T) mm3 wood blocks were extracted from the tapped and 104

untapped parts near the bark of the wood discs for microscopic observation". Why did you select this part for sampling?

How many samples are considered for the analysis?

Did you follow a standard or certain method for wood sample preparation? If yes, please, indicate it.

" The derivative values of the fiber, such as the Runkel ratio (RR), felting power (FP), mulhsteph ratio (MR), coefficient rigidity (CR), and flexibility  ratio (FR) were analyzed to elucidate the quality of the wood fiber for pulp and paper  production". Here you mentioned pulp and paper application. However, the authors just mentioned the resin of the wood species. why did you measure such factors?

 Results and discussion

Density is a key factors that influence the most properties of the wood species. please state the density of the wood species.

I would recommend the authors prepare a table for different anatomical properties of the studied wood species and compare it with the other studies in this case.

 

I would recommend the authors consider IAWA to present and discuss the Vessel and Fiber Characteristics.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Dear reviewer

We have carefully studied the comments and made corrections, hoping to meet the reviewer's comments. The revised sentences were presented with yellow highlights. The point-by-point response to the reviewer's comment is in the attachment. 

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Styrax sumatrana is a commercial tree endemic to North Sumatra and its resin are commonly used in incense, seasoning materials, fragrances, and medicines. In this paper, the qualitative anatomical characteristics and fiber quality of tapped S. sumatrana wood were investigated. The MS presents good background literature research. The section Materials and methods were presented clear to enable other scientists to follow the results and continue recognition of other genetic doubts. The conclusions were derived from the obtained results during the performed studies. It's a simple but interesting piece of research. However, I have only one concern before this MS be accepted and published in Forests. Because the wood trait is a quantitative trait, which is jointly affected by genetic and environmental factors, including tree age, light, temperature and even cultivation methods will affect its final quality. However, whether the results of this study can represent the tree species tapped wood is questionable, especially in the case of obvious differences results with previous studies, considering there is only one sample in this experiment.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required.

Author Response

Dear reviewer

We have carefully studied the comments and made corrections, hoping to meet the reviewer's comments. The revised sentences were presented with yellow highlights. The point-by-point response to the reviewer's comment is in the attachment. 

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

No further comments. 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Although the author has not solved the problem I was worried about earlier, the author has made detailed changes in other parts, and I have no more questions.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required