Assessment of Mycological Possibility Using Machine Learning Models for Effective Inclusion in Sustainable Forest Management

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This manuscript integrates LiDAR, Landsat, climate data with plot dataset to quantify mushroom production for forest sustainable management using AI modeling. To be honest, I was very much intrigued by this title. However, after the whole browse, I’m kind of disappointed. Let me briefly list some specific comments as follows:

(1) The title is not specific enough, it sounds like a book title.

(2) In the abstract, I didn’t see any purpose after the background description which is too long.

(3) In the abstract, I didn’t see any specific result either.

(4) In the title, AI modeling should be one of the core components. AI includes but not limited to machine learning. You only use a few very common machine learning algorithms, why bother using AI, to make your title fancy? And by the way, in your keywords, only neural networks showed up. Everything seems so not consistent.

(5) In Figure 2, the horizontal axis should be adjusted.

(6) LiDAR-derived forest structure was only mentioned once in the last paragraph of Introduction. Nothing else can be seen in the method part. Why?

(7) Figure 4, not clear.

(8) The results part should be more comprehensive. I didn’t see any spatial distribution of the mushroom production. Why?

(9) No conclusion?

(10) How do you related your results to forest sustainable management?

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

It appears that some of the variables you have may be highly correlated, but this is not discussed.  I am not too sure about validity of the two-stage approach.   It is almost as if you are post-stratifying the sample.  Please comment.   

I worry about the ability of the 30-m tm data is to align to ground data.  How are the plots aligned to imagery?  This was unclear in the paper. 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an interesting study. Using machine learning methods for analytics is the most popular today. Multiple machine learning algorithms can yield relatively excellent solutions. But there are some minor issues that need to be modified.

1. Overlapping appearing overlapping figures in Figure 2. It is better to use a tilt of 45 degrees to avoid overlapping.

2. In the part of section 2.4, please give the file name and cloud amount of the remote sensing image to show the professionalism.

3. In Table 1, "L" should give a clear explanation (or value).

4. In line 249, the splitting of the dataset is mentioned. "a 70-30 split" is a vague statement. Maybe 70% and 30%?

5. In line 261, RMSE is mentioned. one metric may not be perfect. It is suggested to add indicators such as R2 and MAE.

These suggestions may improve the article.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Quantifying Mycological Possibility: Artificial Intelligence Modeling for Sustainable Forest Management

The paper emphasizes importance of considering a diverse array of ecosystem variables for quantifying wild mushroom yields as well as using artificial Intelligence tools in modelling non-wood forest products. It is a very interesting topic.

However, several issues need to be addressed before the paper can be considered for publication:

·       It would be appropriate in the introduction to establish the scientific hypotheses that were to be achieved through the analyses and would be evaluated in the discussions, it would contribute to a more scientific paper

·       a conclusion part is missing, in my opinion and it is partially included in other chapters of the article, mainly in the discussion part

·       it would be appropriate, e.g. in chapter Conclusions, add a proposal for measures to improve the situation at the national level in the field of management the forests with mushroom production

·       The conclusions should be improved with the weaknesses of the analysis and the insights for future research

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The language quality is fine, but I advise before publication the article a check by a native speaker of the language

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf