Climatic Suitability of Different Areas in Abruzzo, Central Italy, for the Cultivation of Hazelnut
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
please see the suggestions to improve the submitted manuscript:
Line 137: Correct double ’is’.
Line 146 delete double separation
Line 185: correct ’is very low winter temperatures' to ‘are very low winter temperatures'.
Table 2 could be significantly improved since in the current form it is not clear and readable.
Line 500 upward ‘trend’ (add the word)
The results section contains numerous references, thus it already represents the ‘results and discussion section’. Maybe the 'discuss' section from line 576 could be renamed to concluding remarks, or combined into single the ‘results and discussion section’.
It would be interesting to add the actual flowering dates for the investigated sites and years as supplementary material.
Author Response
The parts of the manuscript, which have been add or modified or deleted are reported in the tracked version.
To follow, the authors' answers to the reviewer:
Line 137: Correct double ’is’. Done
Line 146 delete double separation done
Line 185: correct ’is very low winter temperatures' to ‘are very low winter temperatures'. done
Table 2 could be significantly improved since in the current form it is not clear and readable.
Authors divided the original table into two tables for better reading
Line 500 upward ‘trend’ (add the word) done
The results section contains numerous references, thus it already represents the ‘results and discussion section’. Maybe the 'discuss' section from line 576 could be renamed to concluding remarks, or combined into single the ‘results and discussion section’.
Authors thank the reviewer for constructive comments. The authors, to respect the template of the MDPI, following the indications of the reviewer, have simplified this part, eliminating all references except one “An increase in warm season precipitation was also reported by Curci [22]”, as related to the subject of the sentence, focusing the discussion in the following chapter.
It would be interesting to add the actual flowering dates for the investigated sites and years as supplementary material.
The authors agree with the auditor, unfortunately, however, the hazelnut is not yet cultivated extensively in the Abruzzo region. The few hazelnut orchards present are still very young and therefore no data are available regarding the flowering.
Reviewer 2 Report
Horticulturae 1666131
This paper examines areas suitable for the cultivation of hazelnut trees based on climatic data in central eastern Italy. The experimental approach appears sound and is based on similar studies in other tree crops.
The manuscript is not suitable for publication in its present format. The paper runs to 22 pages and the important findings are lost in the maze of texts, tables and figures. A smaller paper would be much easier to read and would have greater impact on horticultural science.
The most important figure is shown on page 15. Figure 9 indicates the suitability of different areas for hazelnut production. The preceding figures are not required and should be deleted or saved as supplementary files. I recommend that Figures 2-8 be deleted. The text (Results) related to these figures should also be deleted. Climatic data are shown in Table 1 (which needs to be reformatted).
The information on climate change is satisfactory.
The five stations that were satisfactory should be indicated in the Abstract.
Some of the general information in the Introduction should be deleted (reduce to no more than a single page).
I recommend that the paper be revised and submitted for further review.
Author Response
The parts of the manuscript, which have been add or modified or deleted are reported in the tracked version.
To follow, the authors' answers to the reviewer:
This paper examines areas suitable for the cultivation of hazelnut trees based on climatic data in central eastern Italy. The experimental approach appears sound and is based on similar studies in other tree crops.
The manuscript is not suitable for publication in its present format. The paper runs to 22 pages and the important findings are lost in the maze of texts, tables and figures. A smaller paper would be much easier to read and would have greater impact on horticultural science.
The authors agree with the reviewer and had tried to reduce the length of the manuscript as suggested.
This paper examines areas suitable for the cultivation of hazelnut trees based on climatic data in central eastern Italy. The experimental approach appears sound and is based on similar studies in other tree crops.
The most important figure is shown on page 15. Figure 9 indicates the suitability of different areas for hazelnut production. The preceding figures are not required and should be deleted or saved as supplementary files. I recommend that Figures 2-8 be deleted. The text (Results) related to these figures should also be deleted.
The authors moved figures 2-8 to supplementary material to make this information available. The text was reduced but not completely deleted otherwise the subsequent classification of the stations would have been difficult to understand.
Climatic data are shown in Table 1 (which needs to be reformatted).
The authors have splitted the table in two to improve the reading
The information on climate change is satisfactory. The five stations that were satisfactory should be indicated in the Abstract. Done
Some of the general information in the Introduction should be deleted (reduce to no more than a single page).
The authors agreed and reduced this part as suggested.
Reviewer 3 Report
In this paper, the authors presented climatic suitability of specific territories in regard to the cultivation of the hazelnut tree.
The study is vast but is of local importance.
The work is mostly of ecological aspects rather than mechanistic approaches.
Overall, the paper is poorly written and wordy.
There are many formatting issue and references are erroneous.
Author Response
The parts of the manuscript, which have been add or modified or deleted are reported in the tracked version. To follow, the authors' answers to the reviewer:
In this paper, the authors presented climatic suitability of specific territories in regard to the cultivation of the hazelnut tree. The study is vast but is of local importance. The work is mostly of ecological aspects rather than mechanistic approaches. Overall, the paper is poorly written and wordy. There are many formatting issue and references are erroneous.
Authors thank the reviewer and had made suggested corrections.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Horticulturae 1666131 R1
Many thanks to the authors for the revision.
I have provided a few comments for the authors’ consideration.
Please see the attached file for suggestions to improve the Title/Abstract.
The ‘Introduction’ is still too long. Can the authors carefully go through the text to reduce this section to no more than a single page.
Tables 2 and 3 should be moved to supplementary files. Present information about the ranges in temperatures (max/min) in the text.
There is a lot of data presented in the ‘Results’. Could the authors try and reduce some of the text in this section?
The ‘Conclusion’ should be reduced to a short paragraph, highlighting the most suitable areas for hazelnut and the impact of climate change on GDD.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript was not revised as per my comments. Just answered in one line.
I do not think this paper is suitable for the journal, horticulture.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 3
Reviewer 2 Report
Horticulturae 1666131 R2
Many thanks to the authors for revising the paper. The revised manuscript should be suitable for publication in the Journal (see comment below about the citations).
A few suggestions indicated here.
Line 14. “the country” rather than “Italy”.
Line 18. Use the term “below” rather than the symbol (<).
Line 19. Indicate what GDD is.
Keywords. Species in italics.
Line 336. “Discussion” not “Discuss”.
There are numerous errors in the citations, which do not follow the format of the journal at all. Maybe, one of the journal editors could carefully check the revision.
Author Response
To the Reviewer of Agriculture - MDPI
Perugia, Italy, April 27th 2022
The authors thank the reviewer for the comments, which helped to improve the manuscript.
The parts of the manuscript, which have been add or modified or deleted are reported in the tracked version.
To follow, the authors' answers to the reviewer:
- Line 14. “the country” rather than “Italy”. done
- Line 18. Use the term “below” rather than the symbol (<). done
- Line 19. Indicate what GDD is. We changed in “growing degree day”
- Species in italics. done
- Line 336. “Discussion” not “Discuss”. done
There are numerous errors in the citations, which do not follow the format of the journal at all. Maybe, one of the journal editors could carefully check the revision. The authors apologize for formatting errors, due to an error in setting the program references. They revised and changes all of them as following:
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Yours faithfully,
Daniela Farinelli
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
