PONE-D-22-12647Wood stock in neotropical streams: quantifying and comparing in-stream wood among biomes and regionsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Saraiva,

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.

After reading the manuscript and analyzing the reviewers' opinions, I must inform you that the publication's recommendation will be subject to a review. One of the main points associated with this decision is the lack of clarity about the importance of the study for water systems. Furthermore, it is necessary to improve the arguments about the proposed relationships/comparisons between the systems in the USA and Brazil. It would also be interesting to better discuss the connections between the contribution of organic matter and aquatic communities, promoting an expansion of the idea about the relevance of the contribution to the systems. Finally, the initiative to compare different biomes is interesting and valid. Therefore, I request you to make the corrections and send a response letter.

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: N/A

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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: Now, I finished my reading of the manuscript “Wood stock in neotropical streams: quantifying and comparing in-stream wood among biomes and regions (PONE-D-22-12647)” and my comments are below. The paper is very good written. The cited literature is recent and well-used, but follows some a few suggestions to help you improve its quality.

A general view for introduction section. I think the reader may need more information about differences in wood stock between biomes and regions and environments. All these concepts are presented in the introduction, but considering that the manuscript presents two approaches (comparison between regions in Cerrado e Amazonia biomes and between tropical and temperate biomes) a better contextualization is to give greater support to the hypotheses.

Regarding the hypotheses, H1 is contextualized in the introduction, despite little information on the phytophysiognomy of the Amazon and Cerrado to support the justification of H1. However, despite mentioning in the introduction about the largest number of studies in temperate regions, H2 is not so clear, because in the introduction there is no direction for a database study. This issue becomes even more confusing in methodology (data analysis).

Specific details

Introduction, Page 54, delivery or input? Considering that the wood stock (branches, logs and roots) falls from the trees, the term input may be more appropriate.

Page 68 adds references to temperate regions.

Page 70 (and in every manuscript) biome or bioclimatic regions? What do the authors consider biomes in the study (differences in wood stock)? What is the regions approach?

Page 73 environments or biomes?

Page 99 – 101 repeated information

Page 99 – 105 confused

Page 111, I did not find any hypothesis associated with this objective (iii) and the introduction is not directed to this topic.

Material and Methods, pages 238-246, associated with H2 (or a new hypothesis?);

Pages 247 – 259, associated with H2, but with insertion of new categories. These terms should be cited in the introduction. Or the MM section should be better structured: two studies.

Results, page 271, Brazilian streams, regions in the Amazonia and Cerrado were evaluated.

Pages 297-303, results of Hypothesis 1, comparison between regions.

Results, pages 348-382, I did not find the hypothesis associated with these results.

Discussion

The structure of the discussion is good, very objective and logical.

Specific comments: page 559, Brazilian biomes, Amazonia and Cerrado biomes.

Pages 559- 648, I did not find the hypothesis associated with these discussion.

Reviewer #2: The article entitled “Wood stock in neotropical streams: quantifying and comparing in-stream wood among biomes and regions” evaluated wood stock in streams between Brazilian tropical regions. However, while reading the article, I could not understand the importance of this research. When I read the introduction, I expected a comparison between macroinvertebrates or seasonal or interannual dynamics to understand the dynamics of streams. However, I didn't see any of this information in the article. I think that just evaluating the amount of wood and discussing it is not relevant, being just a characterization of the study area. I expected a discussion that would bring relevant information about the aquatic community or how this interannual/seasonal variation could influence these communities. But I didn't find this information.

I also emphasize that: I will not go into details of statistical analysis, as I do not believe that the work has merit to be published in the journal PLOS ONE in the form in which it is currently submitted.

Another piece of information that I considered lost in the text was the comparison with streams in the United States, and in Brazil we have a large subtropical area that could be addressed, making the article more interesting. Comparisons between the Cerrado and the Amazon made the work interesting.

Therefore, I do not recommend publication in the Journal. I hope the authors can insert information on the aquatic community or seasonal/interannual dynamics to make the article more intriguing to readers, making it interesting for publication in this Journal.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Wood stock in neotropical streams: quantifying and comparing instream wood among biomes and regions

PONE-D-22-12647R1

Dear Dr. Saraiva,

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,

Luiz Ubiratan Hepp

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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