PONE-D-24-27053Functional strategies of Sarcomphalus joazeiro in a Brazilian Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest FragmentPLOS 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: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: I Don't Know

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: 1. The article (PONE-D-24-27053) mainly pertains to Functional strategies of Sarcomphalus joazeiro in a Brazilian Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest Fragment. The study is quite routine and not has much novelty for international readers. Besides, it can consider for its publication after resolving the issues or incorporating the suggestions. I had observed some major issues related to the MS. They are as under:

2. MS title is not perfectly suitable as per the study carried out. Must be change the title reflecting the centre theme or idea of the study.

3. Abstract is verbose and lacks clear delineation of objectives, significant finding of the findings. Include a clear mention of the research gap that your study addresses.

4. Authors didn’t focus much into need of phenological studies which is the lacuna in the Introduction part. Kindly provide more detailed information on the previous studies to better contextualize your research. First hypothesis is already an established fact then why did the authors choose this hypothesis

5. In methodology section, describe the method of selecting plants and sampling more rigorously to ensure representativeness and minimize bias. Authors didn’t include the pollen and stigma characteristics which are critical observations affected with meteorological parameters and play a vital role in climate change studies.

6. Results and discussion are well presented and comparing the observation with the previous literatures.

7. Some paragraphs in discussion part (line No 335 to 349) are deviating from the main focus and parameters. May omit these paragraphs.

8. In conclusion section, add some salient finding and don’t emphasize more on the future perspectives as it is research paper rather than review paper.

9. The main focus of manuscript is as per the journal’s name and criteria. Thus, I found the paper may be found suitable for the consideration of its publication in “PLOS ONE” journal and Requires Major Revision.

Reviewer #2: General comments

Abstracts: Abstract was not written well, thus try to refine it by adding the methodology and recommendation parts.

Key words: Capitalize the first letter of each word and add one more key word.

Statement of the problem: is not well stated; you stated that “to ensure success amidst a drought” but, the tree is already grown and growing in the area. Please write the main reason to study the functional strategies of S. joazeiro in a Brazilian Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest Fragment.

Methodology: the researchers used the presence of reproductive events and good phytosanitary conditions as tree selection criteria; but what about the effect of tree’s age on the phenology?

When you write the methodology of research article please, don’t personalize it. For example don’t use “we, I”

Result and discussion: written well

Reference: The reference writing style is not consistent. The researchers used et al in some parts of bibliography and not in others. I recommend writing the name of whole authors in bibliography. But it depends on the type of reference writing styles (Harvard, APA, MLA and others)

Reviewer #3: This manuscript highlights the seasonal drought adaptation strategies for a tree species Sarcomphalus joazeiro (Mart.). The tree species is ecologically integral for the maintenance of Flora and Fauna of Brazilian tropical forests. This study analysed the vegetative and reproductive growth of the tree S. joazeiro for two years and identified that the tree phenophases does not significantly correlates with the meteorological variables. Given the importance of the tree species in a forest ecology and understanding the tree physiology for better environment adaptability and forest conservation could be of significance importance. However, the important parameters to highlight the drought induction and tree response is not included in this study; for instance, relative leaf water content comparison during the rainfall (April) and relative drought season (October) for the forest should be supplemented. Along with the drought inducible enzymes and antioxidant activity should be added such as proline contents, SOD, POD, CAT, etc. to highlight either the trees are actually facing a drought condition or not. Which will further support the conclusion of current study.

The manuscript should be supplemented with the relative parameters prior to its acceptance in the Plos One Journal.

Minor mistakes:

Lines 210, 321, Table 2 (Defoliantion), Table 3 (lenght).

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Reviewer #1: Yes:  Dr. Ashok Kumar Dhakad, Scientist (Forestry), Department of Forestry & Natural Resources, Punjab Agricultural University, INDIA

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-24-27053-vetted.pdf

Attachment

Submitted filename: General comments on research paper.docx

<p>Phenological strategies of an evergreen tree in the Caatinga

PONE-D-24-27053R1

Dear Dr. de Almeida Vieira,

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.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Salman Khan, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. 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

Reviewer #3: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Incorporated all comments raised by the reviewers. They have prepared article well now and exhaustive resources used which is considered of high economic values.

Reviewer #2: I read the document very well. accordingly all of my previous comments have been addressed. congratulations!

Reviewer #3: No more comments from my side, the author has addressed most of the concerns raised by other peer reviewers.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy .

Reviewer #1: Yes:  Dr. Ashok Kumar Dhakad

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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