Does the Age of Pinus sylvestris Mother Trees Influence Reproductive Capacity and Offspring Seedling Survival?
, Javier Vázquez-Piqué 2, Luis Benito 1, Guillermo Madrigal 1, Reyes Alejano 2, Manuel Fernández 2 and Rafael Calama 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The presented manuscript is an interesting, complete study, innovative in terms of the impact of water shortage on the seed germination process. As far as the influence of tree age on the biometric features of seeds is concerned, the publication is of a reproductive nature. The authors omitted several works by other research teams that, in the opinion of the reviewer, should be taken into account in the study of the bibliography and discussion:
Kaliniewicz Z., Tylek P. 2018. Influence of Scarification on the Germination Capacity of Acorns Harvested from Uneven-aged Stands of Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur L.). Forests 9, 1000; doi:10.3390/f9030100.
Parker W. C., Noland T. L., Morneault A. E. 2006. The effects of seed mass on germination, seedling emergence, and early seedling growth of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.). New Forests 32: 33−49.
Tilki F. 2010. Influence of acorn size and storage duration on moisture content, germination and survival of Quercus petraea (Mattuschka). Journal of Environmental Biology, J. Environ. Biol., 31: 325-328.
Detailed comments:
(1) Axis titles in charts should be capitalized consistently.
(2) In figure 2b there is "Tree tree"; it should be "Tree age".
(3) Figure 5 shows "days after watering interruption"; better would be "Time after watering interruption (days)".
(4) Conclusions will be clearer if they are formulated in points.
Author Response
We would like to thank the Editor and the two Reviewers for their useful comments that have greatly helped to improve the MS
The changes made in the MS have been highlighted in yellow
Find below a list of the changes made following the suggestions:
- We have revised the articles suggested by the Reviewer and have included two of the them in our MS: Parker et al . 2006 and Kaliniewicz Z et al 2013 (this article was specific of Pinus sylvestris and seems more appropriate for our study). Unfortunately, I could not find how the article by Tilki 2010 fit in our study.
- Axis titles in charts have been capitalized consistently.
- Figure 2b: "Tree tree"; changed by "Tree age".
- Figure 5 : "days after watering interruption"; changed by "Time after watering interruption (days)".
- Conclusions are left in a paragraph because I’m not sure if formulating them in point is an eligible format in Forests.
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript written by Pardos et al., on investigating the relationship between the mother tree age and seed germination characteristics of Pinus sylvestris is an interesting study that has been carried out perfectly.
The manuscript is written very carefully and organized appropriately. The work is easy to follow and read and the methods are described clearly. The objective of the study is supported by the referred literatures and the results and discussion are presented to the required level of a scientific contribution.
Minimal number of minor errors can be considered by English editors upon proof reading such as:
In table one the order of 817 and then 816 is correct? Or in some figure’s captions the letters (a) is in Bold while (b) or (c) are not.
Author Response
We would like to thank the Editor and the two Reviewers for their useful comments that have greatly helped to improve the MS
The changes made in the MS have been highlighted in yellow
Find below a list of the changes made following the suggestions:
-Table 1: was revised accordingly. As suggested by the reviewer, one of the measured trees was repeated and another was missing.
- Figure captions have been revised.
