Floristic Composition, Structure, and Aboveground Biomass of the Moraceae Family in an Evergreen Andean Amazon Forest, Ecuador
, Robinson J. Herrera-Feijoo 1,*, Aracely Tapia 2, Marco Heredia-R 3, Theofilos Toulkeridis 4 and Bolier Torres 5,6Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript “Floristic composition, structure, and aboveground biomass of the Moraceae family in an Evergreen Andean Amazon Forest, Ecuador” provides a comprehensive analysis of different species of the Moraceae family characteristics and ecological significance such as diversity, ecological relevance of species, biomass, species distribution and much more. However, the Introduction lacks a clear goal or questions of the study, and the information provided here is not well connected to the study.
Although the results are very interesting and abundant, they lack a connection with the information provided in the introduction. The relevance of the reserve where the study was carried out should be also highlighted at some point here too.
The manuscript needs important improvements mostly in the Introduction. Once this is improved, the study will have a better flow of ideas, goals, and meaning.
L23-24. The sentence looks better as “The study found 117….
L24. Was instead of were
L26-27. Suggestion to be written as “Forest structural characteristics such as the horizontal and vertical structure, diameter at breast height (DBH), and the diameter of the tree crown were considered for the analysis.”
L27-29. Suggestion to be written as “The horizontal profile determined that crowns of the species of the Moraceae family cover approximately 16.43% of the upper canopy within the sampling unit area.”
L32-34. Suggestion to be written as “These results highlight the relevance of similar studies assessing the carbon accumulation capacity of species from other families, emphasizing high commercial value species due to their timber resource.”
L51. Suggestion to be written as “However, there are few research efforts on this family in the Amazonian …”
I don have relevant comments on this matter.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers.
On behalf of all the authors we would like to express our sincere thanks for your valuable comments that have been of great help for the improvement of our manuscript.
We have responded to all the comments provided, we hope you like the modifications made to the manuscript (Please see attached file).
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The study examines the Floristic composition, structure, and aboveground biomass of the Moraceae family in an Evergreen Andean Amazon Forest, Ecuador. The study succeeds in the analysis of the horizontal and vertical structure, DBH to estimate the carbon capacity. Overall, this research is potentially full of interest, as it addresses the relevant topic of floristic composition, structure, and aboveground biomass of the Moraceae family. Moreover, there is still a lack of examples of this type of research. I believe that the study is drafted in a clear and intelligible fashion; the text is well organized.
Below are some comments that the authors may needs to address.
Major Issues
1. Limitations of the study need a mention in the abstract and the manuscript. Limitation needs a separate mention; however, it is a part of the discussion section.
3. The introduction section, apart from introducing the reader to the problem statement, needs an introduction on how the manuscript is arranged to understand the flow. More work is needed from the authors for the same.
4. The literature review section is not sufficient. Literature has been cited in the introduction section. However, the study's relevance increases significantly as the literature review helps understand how the current studies, even for the Andean Amazon Forest, Ecuador, support sustainable goals and identify the gap for readers, researchers, and decision-makers. The literature review can help identify the contradictory thoughts, perspectives, and theoretical implications (if any) while also scrutinizing the gap in the present research. How does current research comply or contradict the earlier thoughts? The literature in the introduction and discussion sections can then support the LR to build a case for the reader to understand the research problem statement precisely.
- what is the research worldwide talking about the same?
This will help the manuscript to give more value addition to the readers.
Wish you luck
I believe that the study is drafted in a clear and intelligible fashion; the text is well organized.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers.
On behalf of all the authors we would like to express our sincere thanks for your valuable comments that have been of great help for the improvement of our manuscript.
We have responded to all the comments provided, we hope you like the modifications made to the manuscript (Please see attached file).
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
