PONE-D-20-13788

Allometric equations for estimating above-ground biomass of Nitraria sibirica Pall. in Gobi Desert of Mongolia

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. qin,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

The paper lacks a proper discussion. You just re-dewscribe your results and compare them with the results of other studies. However, they need to be put into a reasonable biological context. Moreover, as you can see in the reviews, there are also some technical issues that need to be mended.

I strongly recommend a linguistic check.

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Dear Authors,

I read your paper carefully, and found any interesting study. I like the studies related to allometric equations because it is much helpful for ecologist to estimate biomass for diversity-functioning studies. The paper is generally well-written and analyzed, but I believe that my comments will further help to improve the paper.

1) Strict English checking from a native speaker is important. MS lines were not included and hence hard to mention the proper places for revision. Please replace “ours were” by “our study was” or “this study was”. Fig. 3 replace “our equation” by “this study”. Major revision needed in English.

2) Abstract: Research aim and conclusions are not very attractive. I suggest to write based on knowledge gap, and what you have contributed to ecology.

3) Introduction: Very short paragraphs included. I suggest to merge small paragraphs in to total of three paragraphs including the last one as it is.

4) M&M section is generally nice, but try to improve if you can.

5) Results: Table 2 can be merged in Table 1 by highlighting the best equations in bold color with gray background. Write some details in the caption what represents the best equation.

Fig. 3 is not very clear to me. Please use different relatively different colors for symbols and also for regression lines. Hard to assess which equation is over or under estimating the biomass. However, I think that Yang et al. is under estimating the biomass whereas your equation is over estimating the biomass. So, Ali et al and Conti et al are doing good as they the dots are near to the line but bit over estimated as your equation. Have a look carefully.

6) Discussion. Major revision is needed here. What is the contribution of your study to allometric biomass equations and ecology in general? Cite more relevant papers. Go beyond the simple discussion. Say something broad. You have compared results with three studies but those studies have recommended equations for species-specific and multispecies equations. I think, you are comparing the multispecies equations with your one species equation. So, there must be some differences. For example, in discussion you mentioned that your results are different than Ali et al where they found D, H and wood density as best predictors. So, you need to show further explanation, why? Same for other two studies (yang et al. and conti et al.). I am confused that why you are not comparing models results with Conti et al. 2015 (Ann For Sci) which was conducted in semi-arid regions.

Good luck!

Arshad Ali

Reviewer #2: Biomass is an important component of global terrestrial ecosystem carbon stocks. Here, the author developed a set of statistical models to estimate above-ground biomass of N. sibirica. The results will improve our predictive ability in aboveground biomass. However, the hypothesis, objective and rationale are not clearly presented. For example, the author claimed that grasses destructive harvest is difficult by citing Hughes et al., 1999. However, in Hughes’s paper, there is no mention of the difficulties in grasses destructive harvest.

In addition, I have some suggestions for revision:

1. In the Material and methods section, all the field data are used to fit the allometric model. Generally, in order to verify the power of the statistical model, I suggest that you can use some data (eg. 75%) to estimate parameters and the rest of data (eg. 25%) to verify the model.

2. In Figure 3, the x and y axis are all ranged from 0 to 25. But why is the 1:1 line (intercept = 0) not a diagonal?

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Arshad Ali

Reviewer #2: Yes: Yan Li

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Allometric equations for estimating above-ground biomass of Nitraria sibirica Pall. in Gobi Desert of Mongolia

PONE-D-20-13788R1

Dear Dr. qin,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Dusan Gomory

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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