Assessing Tree Coverage and the Direct and Mediation Effect of Tree Diversity on Carbon Storage through Stand Structure in Homegardens of Southwestern Bangladesh

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article approaches an interesting subject and raises some important questions backed by a well-realized research. The methdology is well presented and follows a logical structure. Furthermore, the homegardening subject is appropriately correlated with other studies and with the specific of the analysed area. 

A question that I had while reading this article might be useful in complementing it with more details and offering researchers an incentive to find out and test homegardening:

• why was only southwestern Bangladesh chosen for this study? Ex. It is an area that is highly polluted or where agricultural activities have a negative effect? Is homegarding part of this area’s DNA and can be replicated in other areas of the globe or is it correlated with the area's climate and specifi?
• in this way, a more detailed description of the location and practices used there might be helpful

Lines 173-17: it is not necessary to describe the Loss of Ignition method. Its mentioning is more than enough. 

The diversity structural parameters analysis between villages from section 3.2 seems irrelevant as long as there is no mention about the age of the trees. The situation is fine if they have the same age but if, as I suspect, they differ, then it is normal to have variations in DBH, height and basal area. 

However, the major setback is represented by the grammar by phrases that are hard to follow. The article should be more on point, fluent and authoritative. 

I would recommend a review of the English. I have tried to provide just some examples below. 

Please review the English. Just a few examples below:

23 - were significantly varied = have significantly varied?

15, 93 - Here we assessed tree coverage, = “here” is not an appropriate word for an article. You can use In this article/research/study etc.

28 - which indicating a niche complementarity effect driven carbon storage in homegardens. = this phrase is unclear. Which indicates a niche effect driven by carbon storage?

44 - component for many countries for meeting = avoid doubling “for”: in meeting

49 - in the rural area in tropical and = avoid doubling “in” = from tropical and

75: have also reported = have also been reported

76: Thus, the finding of one study is not directly transferable 

another study area. = this phrase is unclear. Please rephrase it

78: committed to Paris Agreement to reduced = commited to the Paris Agreemed to reduce

83: coverage in in = typo error, keep only one “in”

91: exclusion agroforestry = exluding

109: and April = while April

110: January is the coolest month and April is the hottest month in this region, = this phrase also appears a few lines above. Please reconsider it.

113: This Upazilla = Upazilla

120: Then we selected eight villages randomly = we randomly selected

125: all species, having a DBH ≥ 3 cm. = confusing, please rephrase

126: later was confirmed = were confirmed?

131-133: please consider the phrase, the verb is missing

157: this should be a new phrase

260: were positvely related biomass carbon = related with biomass carbon?

279-281: please rephrase, it is unclear

284-285: idem, it is unclear what you mean

296: is thus contribute = is thus contributing in assesing

307: The homegardens = homegardens

309-312: please review this phrase, it is written strangely

337-338: please rephrase

There must be an accordance between the subject and verb (singular-plural forms). Some examples:

39 - either low carbon sector = the low carbon sector/ low carbon sectors

46 - Sustainably managed land that have = either singular (land that has) or plural (lands that have)

56: agroforestry systems which plays = which play

158: The wood density data were obtained = was obtained

161: that wood biomass contain = contains

173: For calculating soil organic matter we used Loss of Ignition method = We used the Loss…. for calculating…

176: were cool = cooled

314: a high carbon stocks = a high carbon stock / high carbon sotcks

The usage of long phrases is hard to follow. Please consider rephrasing and dividing them in more senteces:

Lines 18-20, 36-38, 48-51, 93-99, 145-149, 180-183, 235-238, 277-279

Author Response

Please see the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The topic of the manuscript is very interesting and important to urban biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. Below are the recommendations and questions on this manuscript:

1. Line 157：I think the“allometric equation”should be deleted.
2. The word"TSOC_{SOC(0-15cm)+SOC(15-30}”in equation(4) should be changed to “TSOC_{SOC(0-15cm)+SOC(15-30)}”.
3. The equation should be revised to

4. Line 212-213: Km²should be revised to km².
5. Line 222: The word “caross”should be revised to across.
6. Line 223-224: “Shannon villages”should be revised to “Shannon Wiener index”.
7. Table 3: I think the Shannon diversity index in this table should be the average value of each 10×10m plots. The values are very high.  Please check the data.
8. Line 260: I think “related”should be changed to “related to”.
9. Line 266: I think “basal”should be changed to “basal area”.
10. Line 281-282: “Stand basal area had stronger effect on carbon storage than other stand structural parameters.”I think these results maybe related to the allometric equations used for the biomass estimation. I suggest that the SEM analysis should be supplemented in the results to analyze the direct and indirect impact factors.
11. Line 346-347: I think the conclusion of “the selection effect may also be present in homegardens”is controversial. In this manuscript, the results in the Table 3 showed that there were no significant difference for the “Shannon diversity and Diameter at breast height” across the villages.  
12. In the part of “4 Relationship between tree diversity and carbon pools”, please supplement the discussion about the relationship between tree diversity and high tree coverage with soil carbon storage.
13. The title is “High tree coverage and diversity increase biomass and soil carbon storage in .....”, but, I can’t find the results about the relationship between tree coverage and biomass and soil carbon storage. I think tree coverage is different from stem density.

Author Response

Please see the attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx