Coat Colour Grading of the Scots Pine Seeds Collected from Faraway Provenances Reveals a Different Germination Effect
, Diana E. Raupova 2, Anastasia S. Durova 2, Vladislav D. Bragin 2, Evgeniy P. Petrishchev 3, Arthur I. Novikov 3,*, Dmitry A. Danilov 2 and Anatoly V. Zhigunov 2
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is interesting, however it requires changes to be made to the way the information is presented. It is suggested to review the file with some observations.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
The authors sincerely thank the reviewer for his highly professional comments, which significantly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.
All changes to the manuscript are presented in the Word and PDF-version. The corrected text based on the reviewer’s comments is marked yellow.
Response to your comments please see attachment file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The work deals with a very interesting issue related to the observed color variation of seed coat in Scots pine seeds. It was decided to explain the relationship between this feature of seeds and their viability, and on the basis of the analysis performed, further research questions were raised. The experiment was carried out on a germination substrate and under controlled field conditions, but I do not know why it was decided to use seed material from different regions (except for the seed lot from Tampov) and obtained in different years (storage for a different period of time). I also do not know why the previously unsorted material was sown into the soil substrate, since the meaning of the color of the seeds was emphasized in the title of the work and its purpose. Therefore, I believe that authors should focus on a reliable presentation of only laboratory research. Sub-section 2.2 presents the results of sorting the seeds in terms of their color and size, and only the description of the procedure itself should be included there, while the obtained results should be transferred to the beginning of the Results section. I also believe that Table 2 is redundant (it rather shows the masses of individual fractions, not their percentages), while the sweep of 4 graphs in Figures 2 and 3 can be presented after 1 graph with e.g. mean values and standard deviations marked. The reader is more interested in general relationships than in case studies. The charts should be easier to read, because in their current form it is difficult to associate the legend with the given bars. In the caption of the x-axis, I propose to enter the names of the color groups, and enlarge the legend references and provide only the designations of the dimensional fractions. Round the y-axis numeric values to whole numbers and remove the chart headers. With regard to the description of the seed germination procedure, information should also be provided on the criterion of qualifying given seeds to the germinated group (sprout length, size of the seed coat crack, etc.). Neither was it given what the authors understand by the term germination and germination energy. There is no reference to the standard cited in the text in the reference list. Sub-sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 contain a number of tables, the significance of which for the work is, in my opinion, doubtful, especially since their content is not explained or referenced in the text.
The Results section cannot consist of only tables. A description of the results obtained must be provided, which the authors noted in an interesting way. In addition, data should be included in the form of mean values, and not relating to each repetition (because these are not specific cases, worth a separate description). I also propose to put the results for a given batch of seeds in a more logical system - individual fractions of a given batch juxtaposed together or given fractions of one batch together.
In the Discussion section (line 209), the authors inform about the seed fraction 1.7 / 20, and these are the dimensions of the screen. Rather, it should be mentioned from the fraction separated on the sieve with these dimensions or the dimensional fraction of seeds with a thickness of 1.7 to 2.0 mm. It should also be clarified that the overall low germination efficiency of seeds was recorded in all the collected seed batches. The information between lines 213-299 should be more closely related to the results obtained by the authors or some of it should be included in the Introduction section. This section should provide a broad commentary on what the authors achieved thanks to their work and what is the basis for these results. Therefore, information directly related to the research carried out should be included here in the context of explaining and translating the results achieved.
The first part of conclusion no. 1 should result from the statistical analysis of the examination of the compatibility of seed distribution with the normal distribution, and not from the authors' intuition. Conclusion No. 2 should be removed because it could be formulated before the research is carried out. Conclusion No. 3 concerns rather brown-colored seeds. The last conclusion, as the authors themselves pointed out (lines 215-218), cannot be formulated so unambiguously.
Keywords section: remove the phrase mobile optoelectronic grader as this device is neither described nor used to divide the seeds into color fractions.
Author Response
The authors sincerely thank the reviewer for his highly professional comments, which significantly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.
All changes to the manuscript are presented in the Word and PDF-version. The corrected text based on the reviewer’s comments is marked green.
Response to your comments please see attachment file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors intended to study the effect of seed coat color, seed size, and seed provenance on the seed quality of Scots pine species. They did lots of germination experiments and evaluations, yet they could not organize and present the data in scientific way.
My comments on the manuscript.
- Authors included too much raw data in which they could not focus on the significant data and present the key results.
- The results section only has tables without any comments or explanation of the key results. This could be because they included too much raw data in there.
- Too many tables with raw data are included in the Materials and methods as well as the results section.
- Although the aim of the study is clear, the study is poorly designed and the results is poorly presented.
Author Response
The authors sincerely thank the reviewer for his highly professional comments, which significantly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.
All changes to the manuscript are presented in the Word and PDF-version. The corrected text based on the reviewer’s comments is marked turquoise.
Response to your comments please see attachment file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Lines 51-52: sentence not clear, please rephrase.
Line 127: sentence not clear, please rephrase. Possibly integrate the structure of the germination bed with a drawing.
In Figures 2 and 3 the correspondence between legend and graphs is not clear.
Line 153: it would be appropriate to indicate the concentration of potassium permanganate used.
I suggest moving tables 3 - 28 in Supplementary Information.
Line 267: flowering forms ? not clear, please rephrase.
Line 274: best families? not clear, please rephrase.
Author Response
The authors sincerely thank the reviewer for his highly professional comments, which significantly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.
All changes to the manuscript are presented in the Word and PDF-version. The corrected text based on the reviewer’s comments is marked purple.
Response to your comments please see attachment file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 5 Report
- The topic is up-to-date and the workload is high;
- The conclusions must be clearer, reflecting the results, according to the rest of the research;
- They must also contain a practical component, with recommendations for the producing process of Pinus sylvestris seedlings in nurseries;
- Comparisons can be made by, for example, considering most of the constant parameters (seed size, provenance, quality of trees from which they were harvested, how and how long to keep them, etc.) and looking at how the coat colour influences the germination process;
- I consider that tables 3-28 have no place in the article, because the data are centralized, in the 29-38 tables;
- I recomand that in the future researches to take into account the coat colour as an influence parameter when sowing in containers, in a controlled substrate.
Author Response
The authors sincerely thank the reviewer for his highly professional comments, which significantly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.
All changes to the manuscript are presented in the Word and PDF-version. The corrected text based on the reviewer’s comments is marked deep blue.
Response to your comments please see attachment file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors revised the manuscript and provided sufficient explanations regarding their point of view on the issues in dispute. I also noticed the following minor shortcomings that do not compromise the substantive value of the work:
- the decimal sign in numbers should be a point, not a comma,
- figure 2 - I suggest using all average values, not only selected ones; the signature o and y should be placed in the center of this axis,
- Appendix B - the squares of the chart legend are so small that you cannot see anything on them, and the reader must rather guess what data is meant.
Author Response
The authors sincerely thank the reviewer for his highly professional comments, which significantly contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.
All changes to the manuscript are presented in the Word and PDF-version. The corrected text based on the reviewer’s comments is marked green.
Response to your comments please see attachment file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
