Topoclimatic Zoning of Three Native Amazonian Forest Species: Approach to Sustainable Silviculture

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

SPECIFIC COMMENTS 

The paper is a potentially interesting paper however the presentation of the work and visualization is not very clear but rather confusing. I am alsoo wondering what is really the novelty here? You use many indices such as SPI and other and ... is there the creation of a systemic index? K-means algorithm found so many groups that is hard to know whether those makes sense. How is all of this included into the ''topoclimatic zoning'' / TopZon model? Additional figures are quite not related to the point of the paper or hardly quantifiable. 

 

Figs 1 and 2 are not in English. Please revise.

Table 1 has formatting problems 

 

Other few comments below. 

 

GENERAL COMMENTS: 

(1) NETWORKS (eco-information): The ecological-environmental processes and indices (topoclimatic zoning) you investigate are largely non-linear. Non-linear models such as Convergent Cross Mapping or others (see Sugihara et al 2012, and Wang and Convertino et al. 2023 for instance, that can be applied to any dynamics) can account for variable non-linear interactions (vs. simple correlation) even without considering time delays. These models are also able to capture spatial (eco-environmental networks) joint variability to understand spatial dependencies that are important for the variables considered, as well as variable collective interactions. I am not sure how your study can consider these non-linearities but it would be nice because any ecological outcome is largely determined by ecological non-linearities (beyond structure, i.e. the habitat network and its flows, that you may not be able to capture; such as what are the ecological flows supporting topoclimatic zoning?).  E.g. it would be also nice to link what you map to the spatial ecological corridors (e.g,  preferential directions of Rinaldo at el al (2018,2020).;

 

(2) INFORMATION (eco-information variability): To address the model/data Uncertainty-Sensitivity coupling, global sensitivity and uncertainty analysis (GSUA, aka systemic information analysis) should be done to identify key determinants of model/data indicator variability and universal determinants across geographies. The authors do not quite perform even a one-factor-at-a-time sensitivity analysis and then they are not capturing the variables' linear and non-linear interactions (high-order interactions dependent on the network as in (1)) that can be predominant in defining patterns variability. See Pianosi et al. (2016) for an extensive discussion about this topic and how data should be used for GSUA using a simple variance-based approach, or Wang and Convertino, 2023 for an entropic approach. It is essentially looking into how much variability (and the randonness of that variability) is contained in inputs for the variability of outputs (or even better into the co-predictability versus causality based on probability distribution functions, i.e. pdfs). This is important to identify the stability and source of uncertainty of defined ecological features, flows, and their services (including topoclimatic zoning). 

 

 

RECOMMENDATION:

I suggest accepting the paper after Major Revisions or a Rejection. The paper is potentially good but too messy and I do not know what is really novel and generalizable. 

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

Haojiong Wang, Matteo Convertino

Algal bloom ties: Systemic biogeochemical stress and Chlorophyll-a shift forecasting, Ecol Ind, 2023

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X23009020

 

Rinaldo at el al (2020)

River Networks as Ecological Corridors

Species, Populations, Pathogens

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/river-networks-as-ecological-corridors/09DF57A07BA510393F04E9FEF5F838B3

 

Rinaldo at el al (2018)

River networks as ecological corridors: A coherent ecohydrological

perspective, Adv in Water res

https://water.usask.ca/documents/dls-2021/dls-discussion_rinaldo.pdf

 

Pianosi et al. (2016)

Sensitivity analysis of environmental models: A systematic review with practical workflow

Environmental Modelling & Software

Volume 79, May 2016, Pages 214-232

Packages for GSUA 

- https://www.safetoolbox.info/info-and-documentation/ 

 

Sugihara G et al (2012)

Detecting Causality in Complex Ecosystems

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1227079

 

 

 

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

please frame connected paragraphs and explain things by using the same words throughout the manuscript 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. We appreciate the time and effort that you have dedicated to providing your valuable feedback on the manuscript. We are grateful to the reviewers for their insightful comments on the paper. We have been incorporate changes to reflect all of the suggestions provided. We have highlighted (in green) the changes within the manuscript.

Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted in the re-submitted files. As you suggested, significant changes were made to improve the English, and we hope to have addressed all your requests satisfactorily.

Best regards,

Lucieta

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors conduct a topoclimatic zoning of an area of Amazon for the establishment of three native tree species in human-modified environments. The authors generated their own climatic surfaces with 62 years of climatic information. Prediction of species occurrence was performed with a set of environmental variables. The methods section that explains the zonation by species should be expanded, since it is the key part of their study.

 

Summary

Line 30. Scientific names of species are not abbreviated when they begin the sentence.

 Introduction

Line 90 The species in italics

Line 95 The species in italics

I suggest that the authors increase the theoretical basis concerning what is known about environmental zoning for the development of native forest species.

Given that they present in the introduction, the niche requirements of the species and the environmental conditions of the study area, what did the authors expect to find and why? The answer will be the hypothesis to be tested.

 Methods

Line 223. I suppose that the authors refer to the independent variables, not to dependent variables. The dependent variables are the species.

Line 227-229. It is not clear what the dependent variable will be, I assume it is the presence of the species. Therefore, I suggest reporting the unit of measurement of the dependent variable.

Line 238 The authors report that they zoned the area with a k-means analysis, but it is not clear how they included the coefficients in the model to generate the groups (Figure 1). I suggest that they improve the explanation, since it is the key part of the manuscript.

 Discussion

I suggest that authors discuss their strategy of zonification with respect to other approaches, which presents the advantages of their proposal. As well as the necessary conditions for the author’s proposal to be used in other geographical areas.

Author Response

Dear Professor,

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. We appreciate the time and effort that you have dedicated to providing your valuable feedback on the manuscript. We are grateful to the reviewers for their insightful comments on the paper. We have been incorporate changes to reflect all of the suggestions provided by the reviewer. We have highlighted (in turquoise) the changes within the manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted in the re-submitted files.

Best regards,

Lucietta

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The Amazon forest plays an important role in the global climate system, and the harvesting and processing of native timber has made Brazil one of the world's largest timber exporters. Policies and actions that promote the silviculture of native species represent a strategy to reduce the pressure on native forests from deforestation and the illegal timber market, and thus increase the provision of environmental goods and services from cultivated native species. Many studies have highlighted the importance of topoclimatic zoning in the selection of areas for forest plantations, and the potential of the method to indicate the most suitable areas for silviculture of these species. In this manuscript, topoclimatic zoning identifies areas of higher viability for each species analysed, supporting the implementation of conservation and sustainable use strategies adapted to local climatic conditions and enabling the identification of potential areas for the establishment of sustainable production systems and the restoration of degraded areas in the Brazilian Amazon. However, there are some minor revisions that would improve the article.

1. In “Introduction”, although the article cites a large amount of literature, the literature review section could be expanded to include more recent studies on forest management and climate zoning in the Amazon to demonstrate the innovations and importance of this study.

2. In “Materials and Methods”, the regions of nature occurrence for three forest species in Brazilian Amazon are suggested to add in the article, which will help readers to better understand the results of the study.

3. In “Results and Discussion”, The implications of the results for local communities and policy makers, and how they can be translated into practical forest management strategies, can be explored in more detail. The article mentions that the methodology can be applied to other forest tree species worldwide and it is suggests that this be further explored in the discussion section, including the adaptability of the methodology and possible challenges.

4. In “Conclusion”, the results of the study are not only a contribution to the academic community, but also a practical guide for policy makers and natural resource managers. This article provides valuable scientific information for forest management and ecological restoration in the Amazon.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. We appreciate the time and effort that you have dedicated to providing your valuable feedback on the manuscript. We are grateful to the reviewers for their insightful comments on the paper. We have been incorporate changes to reflect all of the suggestions provided by the reviewer. We have highlighted (in yellow) the changes within the manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted in the re-submitted files.

Best regards,

Lucietta

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

the paper can be accepted for publication 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors increased the theoretical basis in the introduction and included a hypothesis. The methods were explained for replication by the readers, mainly in the creation of groups. In the discussion they explained the implications of their results and their use in other geographical areas. I therefore suggest that the article be published.