Fungal Diversity and Distribution in the Biodiversity Hotspots of the Western Himalayas
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript entitled " Fungal Diversity and Distribution in the biodiversity hotspots of the Western Himalayas" is well-structured and offers valuable insights into the fungal diversity of the western Himalayan region, an area of significant ecological importance. With the recommended refinements, this research can contribute robustly to microbiome research, especially concerning Himalayan biodiversity.
Comments
1. The abstract is comprehensive, but it might be beneficial to include primary influencing factors (e.g., rainfall and solar radiation) directly in the abstract, and it would provide a clear snapshot of the determinants of fungal diversity.
2. The methods section briefly discusses data collection from the Forest Research Institute's fungarium. However, the statistical methodologies employed need to be elaborated.
3. Please provide more details on the statistical tests used, the rationale behind their selection, and any software or tools utilized.
4. There is a potential overlap between the methods and results sections, and this needs to be rectified to maintain the manuscript's flow and clarity.
5. The discussion effectively ties the study's findings to existing literature. However, delve deeper into the broader implications of these findings, especially concerning conservation or ethnobotany's potential applications.
6. Consider discussing how the findings might influence conservation policies in the Himalayan region or how understanding fungal diversity can aid in sustainable ethnobotanical practices.
7. When discussing Shannon diversity (SD) and species richness (SR) for different tree species, provide exact values or ranges. Introduce a table in the results section summarizing the SD and SR values for various tree species and fungal families.
8. The reference list to ensure all cited works are included and formatted consistently. Ensure that studies referenced in the discussion (e.g., Lakhandpal 1997, Deshmukh 2004) are correctly cited in the references section.
Author Response
The manuscript entitled " Fungal Diversity and Distribution in the biodiversity hotspots of the Western Himalayas" is well-structured and offers valuable insights into the fungal diversity of the western Himalayan region, an area of significant ecological importance. With the recommended refinements, this research can contribute robustly to microbiome research, especially concerning Himalayan biodiversity.
Comments
- The abstract is comprehensive, but it might be beneficial to include primary influencing factors (e.g., rainfall and solar radiation) directly in the abstract, and it would provide a clear snapshot of the determinants of fungal diversity.
- The abstract has been improved taking into account the important fungal families and their distribution based on the primary influencing factors (e.g., rainfall, solar radiation).
- The methods section briefly discusses data collection from the Forest Research Institute's fungarium. However, the statistical methodologies employed need to be elaborated.
- The methodology section has been expanded to include additional references to further explain the statistical methods.
- Please provide more details on the statistical tests used, the rationale behind their selection, and any software or tools utilized.
- The methodology section has been expanded to include more details on the statistical tests used and rational for the selection, including the software tool used with R statistical packages to perform these statistical tests.
- There is a potential overlap between the methods and results sections, and this needs to be rectified to maintain the manuscript's flow and clarity.
- The identified overlaps between methods and results sections have now been corrected as Figure 1 shows sample specimens from fungarium. Also, more descriptions were added to the methods to prevent further overlap. - The discussion effectively ties the study's findings to existing literature. However, delve deeper into the broader implications of these findings, especially concerning conservation or ethnobotany's potential applications.
- Added a paragraph in the discussion focusing on the broader implications including ethnobotany, particularly to address the data deficit on fungal biodiversity in this region.
- Consider discussing how the findings might influence conservation policies in the Himalayan region or how understanding fungal diversity can aid in sustainable ethnobotanical practices.
- A paragraph has been added that focuses on the aspects of conservation policy to be addressed in this study.
- When discussing Shannon diversity (SD) and species richness (SR) for different tree species, provide exact values or ranges. Introduce a table in the results section summarizing the SD and SR values for various tree species and fungal families.
- The new tables Table 1 and Table 2 showing SD and SR for host tree and fungal families have now been added and in text reference for paragraphs containing the description of these values.
- The reference list to ensure all cited works are included and formatted consistently. Ensure that studies referenced in the discussion (e.g., Lakhandpal 1997, Deshmukh 2004) are correctly cited in the references section.
- The references have been checked and since some of them are books, they have been cited according to the consistent referencing style. Newly added references are also accordingly with the same consistency. Doi is found for most citations, except for some older books.
Reviewer 2 Report
1. Spelling mistakes are indicated by sticky notes.
2. What is "Sal" - Shorea? need to include the scientific name.
3. With so much molecular work that has change boundaries of families, orders, etc., it would be good to cite the classification that you are following. Index Fungorum for example. You have made assessments of families based on the genus names with the collections. I might recommend including a table of genera for each of the families.
4. I am not sure that rusts belong in you evaluation of diversity. They are usually a completely different topic from wood rotting/parasitic macrofungi which you are mainly focusing on. Rusts are dependent on the distribution of hosts. And, conclusions about rust distribution would have to include those occurring on herbaceous plants.
5. Since you submitted Figures in color it is presumed that the journal will print in color. For figures 1 & 2 the caption indicating color code needs to be enlarged as it is very difficult to see the small circular colors. Bolder colors like dark blue, bright yellow, bright red, etc. would be better rather than the pastel colors.
6. The captions for Figs. 4-7 need to be expanded to indicate what the dashed lines mean, and indicate what the widths of the violin diagrams mean. Again, use bolder colors.
7. In several places references are made to ectomycorrhizal fungi - p 2, paragraph 3, and Discussion first sentence. This reviewer works on mycorrhizal fungi which are found mainly in the Agaricales. The families that you list are mainly wood-rotters/parasites (however, Thelephora terrestris is mycorrhizal). This is rather confusing. Further explanation is needed to clarify the statements about ectomycorrhizae. Greater emphasis should be indicated that you are assessing wood-decay fungi. You could even place wood-decay in the title: Diversity and distribution of wood-decay fungi in the biodiversity hotspots of . . . (This would also mean excluding the rusts)
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
English is good. Spelling corrections are noted by sticky notes.
Author Response
- Spelling mistakes are indicated by sticky notes.
- The spelling mistakes indicated by sticky notes and other spelling mistakes have been rectified. In addition, detailed language editing was carried out.
- What is "Sal" - Shorea? need to include the scientific name.
- Sal is Shorea which we have made changes to all tree species name indicating genera as well species if only particular tree species is the host i.e., Deodar (Cedrus deodara).
3. With so much molecular work that has change boundaries of families, orders, etc., it would be good to cite the classification that you are following. Index Fungorum for example. You have made assessments of families based on the genus names with the collections. I might recommend including a table of genera for each of the families.
- The FRI Fungarium follows traditional scientific taxonomic classification system i.e. Linnaen system, it has now been added in the methodology paragraph 1. Table of genera (Table 4) has been now added with identification of the category of fungi i.e. rust, wood-decaying or ectomycorrhizal (symbiotic). The Fumarium website link as also been provided in methodology section.
- I am not sure that rusts belong in you evaluation of diversity. They are usually a completely different topic from wood rotting/parasitic macrofungi which you are mainly focusing on. Rusts are dependent on the distribution of hosts. And, conclusions about rust distribution would have to include those occurring on herbaceous plants.
- The rust families were also selected because, firstly, they occur in large numbers on host tree species. Secondly, because the fungal families are selected for analysis based on specimen abundance, so that diversity and richness can be determined for these Himalayan host tree species. For data quality reasons, the most important fungal families with a significant number of specimens were selected for analysis.
- Since you submitted Figures in color it is presumed that the journal will print in color. For figures 1 & 2 the caption indicating color code needs to be enlarged as it is very difficult to see the small circular colors. Bolder colors like dark blue, bright yellow, bright red, etc. would be better rather than the pastel colors.
- The journal publishes in color. Figures 1 and 2 have been improved with better caption/legend and bolder colors.
- The captions for Figs. 4-7 need to be expanded to indicate what the dashed lines mean, and indicate what the widths of the violin diagrams mean. Again, use bolder colors.
- The captions have now been improved and explain the dashed line (Mean i.e., averages). Since the journal uses these color prints in the original jpeg image, it is easier to read in the online version, as with the 10 fungal species it is important for us to maintain the aesthetics in Figures 4 to 8 and also the same format as in Figure 4. Note that the transparency aesthetic is retained in all figures from 4-8.
- In several places references are made to ectomycorrhizal fungi - p 2, paragraph 3, and Discussion first sentence. This reviewer works on mycorrhizal fungi which are found mainly in the Agaricales. The families that you list are mainly wood-rotters/parasites (however, Thelephora terrestris is mycorrhizal). This is rather confusing. Further explanation is needed to clarify the statements about ectomycorrhizae. Greater emphasis should be indicated that you are assessing wood-decay fungi. You could even place wood-decay in the title: Diversity and distribution of wood-decay fungi in the biodiversity hotspots of . . . (This would also mean excluding the rusts)
- Discussion paragraph 1 has now been improved to focus more on wood decay fungi. However our aim is to analyze the fungal families based on specimen abundance so that diversity and richness can be known for these Himalayan host tree species. As shown in the newly added fungal family genus in Table 4, there are a significant number of rust and ectomycorrhizal fungi to be displayed in the results. The relevant description has been added as text in the last paragraph of results section. As previously mentioned, for data quality reasons, the most important fungal families with a significant number of samples were selected for analysis. Hence, we decided not to change the title as suggested.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The revised document reads much better.
