Development of Allometric Equations to Determine the Biomass of Plant Components and the Total Storage of Carbon Dioxide in Young Mediterranean Argan Trees
, Aissam El Finti 2, Abderrahmane Aitlhaj 5 and Jamal Hallam 1,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe review of the manuscript titled "Development of allometric equations to determine the biomass of plant components and the total storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in young Mediterranean Argan trees”
This paper develops the allometric equations for the assessment of the biomass of young Mediterranean Argan trees, their components, and the total storage of carbon. Unfortunately, in its current state, the manuscript cannot be recommended for publication. It has to be improved both in the context part and grammar to meet the requirements of the Journal of Sustainability (MDPI).
Specific comments:
L4. Remove “CO2” in the title.
L57. Provide the purpose of allometric equations in this sentence.
L89-91. Provide the task of estimating the total storage of C as it is announced in the title.
L156. Provide the right reference source.
L190. If the relationships are not linear, why are the trends in Figure 3 linear?
L199. 4-5 year-old plants were harvested in 2023, whereas the other ages were harvested in 2021. Can it be the reason for differences in the mean C content of roots? And why does it not influence the mean C contents in leaves and stems? These data looks strange...
L218. It looks like the beginning of the sentence is lost.
L220-221. Control the reference number of the table.
L234-238. This paragraph is better suited for the discussion section.
L236. Provide the right reference source.
L238. Provide the right reference source.
L243-244. Provide the right reference source.
L245. Table 4 duplicated Table 3.
L270. Fig. 7 does not allow understanding the precise values at 2 and 3 growing years. Think about using log y-axes to overcome this problem.
L320-340. This paragraph is better suited for the results section.
L372-374. This is a false conclusion since the observation has been made only during the 2–6 growing years.
L374-376. The provided reference (Bernal et al. [40]) does not contain the studies on the Argan trees to support the conclusion on the “promising future potential for carbon sequestration” made by the authors at L372-374.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe paper aims to is to develop allometric equations to calculate plant biomass and carbon storage in Argania spinosa trees. I find the paper interesting and useful, and it may be of interest to scientists and technicians working on this topic, especially for researchers working on C storage in plant biomass. The paper falls within the scope of the journal Sustainability. It has sufficient impact, because this topic is currently being addressed by different researchers around the world, and represents a breakthrough in the field.
I think that the content of the manuscript is scientifically correct, with a good bibliographic review, an adequate methodology, good results and discussion, and conclusions based on the results and that respond to the stated aims.
Just some formal issues and a matter of greater importance:
1) Lines 38, 39, 49, 70, and 88 require bibliographic citations.
2) Lines 156, 220 and 243: an error message appears: “Error! Reference source not found”.
3) In my opinion, what is stored in plant biomass is organic carbon (or simply carbon), not carbon dioxide. I therefore recommend that the title should read "...and the total storage of carbon in young..." and that the units of measurement in lines 267, 274, 356 , etc. should be changed to tC ha-1.
Author Response
Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe review of the manuscript titled "Development of allometric equations to determine the biomass of plant components and the total storage of carbon dioxide in young Mediterranean Argan trees”
This is a second review of the manuscript. The authors corrected and improved the manuscript according to the reviewer’s comments, and now the study can be accepted for publication after addressing some minor issues (see Specific Comments).
Specific comments:
L24. Did you miss the word “equation” here?
L39. I suggest introducing “carbon dioxide” and its abbreviation here and further using CO2 everywhere.
L91. How about twigs and branches? How can you explain that branches are not included in allometric equations?
L98. Correct the sentence “Figure 1. Location of the study orchards in Morocco.”.
L123. At which height was the diameter of the stem measured?
L193. To improve visibility, I suggest using the log-x scale in Figure 3.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
