Species Diversity of Deadwood in Chinese Fir Plantations Differs between Mixed Planting and Thinning Treatments
Wang Pan
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dead wood is an important component of plantations, which is related to the biodiversity, carbon storage, material cycle and energy flow of forest ecosystem. This study attempted to explain the species diversity of dead wood in Chinese fir planation and Chinese fir & Michelia macclurei Dandy mixed forest. Dead wood was classified into two groups according to origin and status and then analyzed respectively. Its scientific background, hypothesis and method are clear on the whole. The discussion is also well expounded. However, there are some deficiencies in this paper. Both plots differ in shapes and sizes and have no duplicate. This is a case study and should be highlighted in conclusion.
I recommend this manuscript to be published in Sustainability after minor revision.
Specific suggestion is listed as following
Line 13, ‘…the species diversity of deadwood…’, this sentence doesn’t make sense; I guess it refers to the methods used to convert plantations.
Lines 73, what is kind of the previous study?
Lines 88-91, ‘…and named Longzhou Forest Farm of Guangxi Province. After several changes of name and restructuring, it is now…’ is redundant, please deleted it. As far as I know, ‘Guangxi’ is Zhuang Autonomy Region, rather than province.
Lines 126-127, both quadrats have different shapes and sizes, why did not you setup more plots?
Lines 264-266, delete ‘Short-rotation industrial crops (e.g., fast-growing Eucalyptus species) are usually harvested before trees become significantly differentiated in terms of size, or die, such that deadwood is rarely produced.’
Lines 266-268, rephrase it. Natural forest has nothing to do with the topic.
Moreover, please check all citations/reference and make sure they are correct. I notice that their formats differ from many journals in forestry.
Author Response
Dear reviewer 1#
I have amended my manuscript entitled ‘Species diversity of deadwood in Chinese fir plantations differs between mixed planting and thinning treatments’ (ID: sustainability-2314847) according to your suggestion. With your help, I believe this version is much better now. If you get any misunderstanding, please do let me know. Many thanks.
Best regards
Yours sincerely
Muxuan, Li
April 10th, 2023
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear editor
The Manuscript including valuable achievements. However some comments (major revision) can be effective to improvement the paper:
Title
I hope a revise as well a better title can be effective to more motivation for readers
Abstract
Abstract should be revised after main text review
Introduction
Which kind of Plantations?-first line
Revise the highlight sentences
Extend a-biotic factors such as...
Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.) is -Cupressaceae
A comprehensive literature review is necessary
The aims and hypothesis should be describe different and clearly
Study area
Please provide a suitable description about bioclimatology, pedology, geological features the two studied area.
Several long shot and extensive view on the study area as well clear images of target taxon is necessary
Obvious as well efficient map seems be necessary to represent a suitable view on the study area
How did you reach these dimensions of the plot? What method did you follow? Please describe method clearly as well in detail
Why did you use this methods to analysis? which benefits has it?
Results
The results should be presented without analysis. The authors should be present results as news without any analysis
The effects should be removed and the title should be corrected
Discussion
Discussion shoeing several shortcomings:
The main achievements ?
The conservation issues?
The management strategy to environmental managers?
The supplementary study for next assessments?
The conservation management is weak in this study. Please expand the conservative results.
Which method do you suggest to conservation of plant vegetation studied area?
A comprehensive comparison to other studies in different zones of the world as well adjacent regions to analysis your results
What are the main achievements of study?
What are the main achievements to conservation management?
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer 2#
We have amended my manuscript entitled ‘Species diversity of deadwood in Chinese fir plantations differs between mixed planting and thinning treatments’ (ID: sustainability-2314847) according to your suggestion. With your help, we believe this version is much better now. Please note that your current suggestion significantly differ from other four reviewers’, we comprehensively absorbed each suggestion when amended the Ms. If you get any other suggestion, please do let us know. Many thanks.
Best regards
Yours sincerely
Muxuan, Li
April 19th, 2023
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear authors,
Thank you for your good work. Please take the following into consideration.
Line 66: afforestation[4], …. Make a space.
Line 81: …. such that that there ….. Delete the repeated word ‘’that’’
101 ℃occurring ……. Make a space
Figure 2. Add the P values to the components of the figure
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer 3,#
We have amended my manuscript entitled ‘Species diversity of deadwood in Chinese fir plantations differs between mixed planting and thinning treatments’ (ID: sustainability-2314847) according to your suggestion. With your help, we believe this version is much better now. If you get any misunderstanding, please do let us. know. Many thanks.
Best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Muxuan, Li
April 19th, 2023
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
General comments
Undoubtedly, deadwood are key elements in understanding forest stand dynamics. This paper addresses their occurrence, quantity and types in ~ 30 yr-old plantations under two site conditions: mixed and thinned monoculture. Contrasting deadwood composition and diversity among both forest condition makes the study interesting and relevant.
Specific comments
Please provide a clear objective statement.
Line 83 please eliminate repeated word
Line 92, what hm2 stands for? Please review
Lines 95-96 unclear writing, please consider restate
Line 99 please avoid using subjective descriptors (abundant) when providing specific information on site conditions.
Lines 122-123 please provide an estimate of current stand density (basal area o tree per hectare or both) and basal area removed with thinning.
Lines 136-139 please provide a table with descriptive statistics of trees species for both conditions (TF and MF). There are clear differences in number of living trees between both site conditions; this may play an important role in tree mortality or deadwood occurrence. i.e. TF has by far more living trees than MF despite thinning.
Data analysis
Please describe all procedures followed for statistical analysis, i.e. comparisons in diversity indicators between both site conditions (TF and MF). i.e. in results section you indicate K-W and ADONIS analysis which were not mentioned previously in this section.
Results
Table 2, is not clear, please used marks (shadow) to distinguish TF and MF and within each to distinguish PS and LCP. Why include stumps in this table?
Table 3, please indicate as a footnote, what SR stands for
Please review Figure 1, it requires more description, i.e. numbers in circles are species? 1(a) and 1(e) indicates that shared (overlapping area) species are 4, but MF only has 3 species, why is that?
Overall, although the first two sections (Introduction and Methods) are fairly well described, the Results section turns out difficult to follow, which limits the understanding of the study results. Perhaps the author should try a different arrangement of this section, i.e. describing results for each conditions separately and then show the comparisons, instead of intermixing the results for both conditions. This may cause confusions, i.e. in line 182 says: “there were 254 pieces of deadwood in the MF…” and again in lines 183-184: “there were 304 pieces of deadwood in the MF…”. Table 3 clarifies the differences but writing causes confusions, please consider review. Similar trends in the species diversity section.
Discussion
At least a paragraph on management implications would enrich the study contribution. i.e. can these results be used to accelerate the formation of structures similar to old-growth forests? This question seems relevant and pertinent in the study region, since some plantations are aimed to conversion in near-natural forests to provide ecosystem services.
Author Response
Dear reviewer 4,#
We have amended my manuscript entitled ‘Species diversity of deadwood in Chinese fir plantations differs between mixed planting and thinning treatments’ (ID: sustainability-2314847) according to your suggestion. With your help, we believe this version is much better now. If you get any misunderstanding, please do let us know. Many thanks.
Best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Muxuan, Li
April 19th, 2023
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 5 Report
I appreciate the authors’ effort to writing the research paper but requires modification. Please do not use personal pronouns such as "we" in abstract, introduction, materials and methods, section. In this article, what the "deadwood" is, please define and described how measured. In addition, you have to explain about plantation and thinning systems. These may be effect of system on deadwood distribution.
I would like to know about objectives and Please more information why this study is important.
Author Response
Dear reviewer 5,#
We have amended my manuscript entitled ‘Species diversity of deadwood in Chinese fir plantations differs between mixed planting and thinning treatments’ (ID: sustainability-2314847) according to your suggestion. With your help, we believe this version is much better now. If you get any misunderstanding, please do let us know. Please also note that we had taken other four reviewers’ suggestion when amended this manuscript. Many thanks.
Best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Muxuan, Li
April 19th, 2023
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Editor
The manuscrip is perfect and acceptable
Best Regards
Reviewer 4 Report
Considering that my previous comments were intended to suggest aspects to be improved in the the manuscript, I consider that all the comments were sufficiently addressed by the authors. Therefore, this revised version is suitable for publication.
Reviewer 5 Report
Thank you for your efforts.
