Buds, Bugs and Bienniality: The Floral Biology of Eschweilera tenuifolia (O. Berg) Miers in a Black-Water Flooded Forest, Central Amazonia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript by Barnett and co-workers attempts to characterize biennial nature of flowering in Eschweilera tenuifolia. The study explores to identify the factors influencing the energy-conserving strategy. The authors recorded various parameters including insect infestation, bud abortion, nectar production and fruit production.

The data collection and experimental planning are satisfactory. The texts and figures are well organized to highlight the results. The statistical analyses also appear appropriate for the design of the study.  The study is a nice piece of reproductive ecology where influence of cryptic strategies on the allocation of reproductive has been shown. Table 1 and Table 2 provided information on the animals and plants interacting with tree. I have no substantial concerns with this manuscript.

Author Response

Thank you very much for looking at our paper, I am so very pleased you liked the topic and considered that the text could be published with no revisions. Which is very kind of you. We did receive a (very) few suggestions from the other reviewer, and I include those here for completeness.

Many thank for your time and encouragement

Adrian

Reviewer 2 Report

The topic is interesting and fits within the aims and scope of the Forests journal. The manuscript provided useful information and data on floral biology of Eschweilera tenuifolia of flooded forests of Amazon in Brazil and served as a valuable resource for further research. Overall, this manuscript is well-written but needs some edits in the text as well as figures and graphs and can be accepted.

Comments and Suggestions for Authors to enhance the quality of the presentation:

Line 2-4: As a suggestion may you please shorten the title: Buds, Bugs and Bienniality: The Floral Biology of Eschweilera tenuifolia in Black-water Flooded Forest of Central Amazon

Line 29: Please delete the (36 words)

Line 31: and with large flowers (6 cm-width).

Line 49: flower/fruit ratio

Line 49: You may add "igapó" as a keyword

Line 66 and 67: perhaps you may only use "clear" instead of "clear-"

Line 68: It should be "the"

Line 69: Figure (please follow the MDPI journals format)

Table 1: On Reference column, only the number of reference should be enough and no need of repeating the authors names

Line 101 and 130: Please double check the format of the Forests journal, I believe you should should be refers as "Figure" not Fig in the text.

Line 201: Jaú National Park (JNP)

Table 3: Please make sure to identify the abbreviations that you use for the first time in the article for example Diameter at breast height (DBH)

Figure 5: May you please add a scale bar to the picture instead of showing the ruler? then you can crop the top part of the picture that shows the table and ruler and save some space, these small details will add to the scientific soundness of the article.

Line 321: Please also add the software and the version that you used for data analysis, R or SAS or JMP or SPSS

Figure 7: Either on the X axis edit S1, S2, ... for Stage 1 and ... or in the figure caption mention S means Stage

Figure 8: The caption must be edited. The current caption is explaining the difference of T and A on the graph, however it should be more general such as: Bud damage percentage across 4 size classes (A to D) on aborted and tree.

Line 433: Please edit the caption. Flower damage intensity (%) for aborted flowers and on trees...

Figure 10-11: Please be clear about the caption of the X axis are those values hours?

Author Response

The topic is interesting and fits within the aims and scope of the Forests journal. The manuscript provided useful information and data on floral biology of Eschweilera tenuifolia of flooded forests of Amazon in Brazil and served as a valuable resource for further research. Overall, this manuscript is well-written but needs some edits in the text as well as figures and graphs and can be accepted.

Comments and Suggestions for Authors to enhance the quality of the presentation:

Line 2-4: As a suggestion may you please shorten the title: Buds, Bugs and Bienniality: The Floral Biology of Eschweilera tenuifolia in Black-water Flooded Forest of Central Amazon - done

Line 29: Please delete the (36 words) Done at L. 28, plus other numbers at L. 31, L. 35, L.40 and L. 49

Line 31: and with large flowers (6 cm-width). Done at L.31

Line 49: flower/fruit ratio. Done at L. 50

Line 49: You may add "igapó" as a keyword. Done at L. 50

Line 66 and 67: perhaps you may only use "clear" instead of "clear-". Done at L. 68 and 69

Line 68: It should be "the". Done at L. 70

Line 69: Figure (please follow the MDPI journals format) – done here (L. 71) and throughout ms. (Ls 103, 132, 153, 198, 213, 218, 224, 226, 230, 256, 330, 333, 368, 386, 396, 404, 415, 416, 440, 443, 448, 501, 502      

Table 1: On Reference column, only the number of reference should be enough and no need of repeating the authors names – done (and also for Table 2 – L. 106)

Line 101 and 130: Please double check the format of the Forests journal, I believe you should should be refers as "Figure" not Fig in the text. Done throughout (see above)

Line 201: Jaú National Park (JNP) – done, L. 203

Table 3: Please make sure to identify the abbreviations that you use for the first time in the article for example Diameter at breast height (DBH) – done at L 227

Figure 5: May you please add a scale bar to the picture instead of showing the ruler? then you can crop the top part of the picture that shows the table and ruler and save some space, these small details will add to the scientific soundness of the article. Done, changed at L. 272

Line 321: Please also add the software and the version that you used for data analysis, R or SAS or JMP or SPSS – Done. L324 now states that SPSS was used.

Figure 7: Either on the X axis edit S1, S2, ... for Stage 1 and ... or in the figure caption mention S means Stage – change made at L. 378

Figure 8: The caption must be edited. The current caption is explaining the difference of T and A on the graph, however it should be more general such as: Bud damage percentage across 4 size classes (A to D) on aborted and tree. Change made, Ls 422-432

Line 433: Please edit the caption. Flower damage intensity (%) for aborted flowers and on trees... Change made, L. 434

Figure 10-11: Please be clear about the caption of the X axis are those values hours?

Changes made

Figure 10 464/6

Figure 11 467/9

Author Response File: Author Response.docx