A New Approach to Inform Restoration and Management Decisions for Sustainable Apiculture
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Very good study. Well written manuscript. Looking forward to see the model applied on the field by agriculture managers, technicians and beekeepers.
Author Response
Point 1: Very good study. Well written manuscript. Looking forward to see the model applied on the field by agriculture managers, technicians and beekeepers.
Response 1: Thank you so much for your positive feedback on our manuscript and study. We really appreciate your time taken to review our work.
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper is well written and documented. Congrats.
Author Response
Point 1: The paper is well written and documented. Congrats.
Response 1: Thank you for your positive feedback, supporting the publication of our manuscript. We really appreciate your time taken to review our submission.
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear authors,
This paper presents an interesting topic, both from a scholarly perspective and in support of policies aimed at increasing the sustainability of apiculture practices. The scope of the paper is regional, focusing on the decision variable and data inputs to predict performance and outcomes of the apiculture practices in the Swan Coastal Plain, but it is of interest to the wider public, taking into account the global challenge of tackling the pressure of securing pollination services and honey-bee products.
I like the narrative of the paper and the way you walk the reader through the arguments of using the proposed decision variables and input data, together with their shortages that are coherently presented and could be used as starting point for future research.
I would like to suggest to complement your input data on point '6.2. Landscape data' with more insight into historical landscape changes and take into account future trends that could affect the habitat suitability for apiculture practices in your study area.
Author Response
Point 1: This paper presents an interesting topic, both from a scholarly perspective and in support of policies aimed at increasing the sustainability of apiculture practices. The scope of the paper is regional, focusing on the decision variable and data inputs to predict performance and outcomes of the apiculture practices in the Swan Coastal Plain, but it is of interest to the wider public, taking into account the global challenge of tackling the pressure of securing pollination services and honey-bee products.
I like the narrative of the paper and the way you walk the reader through the arguments of using the proposed decision variables and input data, together with their shortages that are coherently presented and could be used as starting point for future research.
Response 1: We really appreciate your valuable feedback and positive response on the topic, scope, content, structure and writing style of our paper. Thank you also for the time you have taken to review our submission and detail your response.
Point 2: I would like to suggest to complement your input data on point '6.2. Landscape data' with more insight into historical landscape changes and take into account future trends that could affect the habitat suitability for apiculture practices in your study area.
Response 2: Thank you for your additional valuable feedback with the suggestion of complementing our “input data on point 6.2 Landscape data with more insight into historical landscape changes and take into account future trends that could affect the habitat suitability for apiculture practices in your study area”.
We have therefore added an additional five sentences and three new references to point 6.2, highlighting the importance of considering historic land uses and allowing for future environmental change (particularly climate change), when restoring sites with new honey bee forage. Accounting for these factors will likely increase the success and evolutionary flexibility of plantings.
