Drone-Based Imaging Polarimetry of Dark Lake Patches from the Viewpoint of Flying Polarotactic Insects with Ecological Implication
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I believe that this work deserves merit but key issues are missing.
1. Elaborate on the ecological implications. What is the problem if the aquatic insects are drawn in the dark patches? Can it be connected to the general insect decline problem. You need to expand on the connection
2. Did you evaluate the correlation between polarotaxis and insect densities on dark patches or you just make a guess. What I ask is whether you actually sampled insects from the patches and made counts and measurements
3. 17 self-citations is inappropriate. Reduce to 2-3.
Typos: line 359 imagig
lines 447-457 font problems
Please try to meet issues (1) and (2)
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
I found this paper really interesting, and it shows another useful application of drones to explore ecological outcomes.
I have left detailed comments throughout the PDF to be addressed, but I consider these to be fairly minor.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors improved the manuscript. The major drawback is that there is no insect sampling from the field. This is a laborious process but when you refer to insects being attracted to the black patches and insect fauna you should have done so. Currently, all the easy corrections have been made. However, I would prefer to see it published than not.
Author Response
Point-by-Point Response to the Comment of Reviewer 1
We thank the 2nd review of Reviewer 1. Our manuscript was revised on the basis of the new comment of Reviewer 1. The changes suggested by Reviewer 1 are marked with orange. Below is our response to the comment of Reviewer 1.
Reviewer 1 wrote: The authors improved the manuscript. The major drawback is that there is no insect sampling from the field. This is a laborious process but when you refer to insects being attracted to the black patches and insect fauna you should have done so. Currently, all the easy corrections have been made. However, I would prefer to see it published than not.
Answer: Egri et al. (2023) have sampled the larvae of non-biting midges (Chironomidae) in one of the dark water patches of the Hungarian lake Balaton and obtained that both the density and the average size of chironomid larvae are significantly larger in the black harbour-water than in the surrounding bright lake-water. This proves that polarotactic adult chironomids are intensely attracted to the highly and horizontally polarizing, seasonally dark lake-patches, where the abundance of their larvae increases.
Since this result (being under review in another journal) is yet unpublished, in the subsection ‘4.2 Ecological implication: relationship between measured polarization and aquatic insects’ of the ‘Discussion’ section of our 2nd revised manuscript we deleted the followings criticized by Reviewer 1:
... and ecologically by our still unpublished study [28]: The sampling of larval non-biting midges (Chironomidae) showed that both the density and the average size of chironomid larvae are significantly larger in the black harbour-water than in the surrounding bright lake-water. Thus, polarotactic chironomids are intensely attracted to the highly and horizontally polarizing, seasonally dark lake-patches, where the abundance of their larvae increases.
- Á. Egri, Á. Pereszlényi, J. Szekeres, D. Száz, G. Horváth, and G. Kriska, ”A possible ecological advantage of a special polarized light pollution: positive effect of a dark lake-patch at a canal inflow on non-biting midges,” Limnology (submitted: 23 September 2022) (2022).
because we do not want that the unpredictable time of acceptance of paper [28] retards the publication of our present paper.
In our 2nd revised paper we only suggest the positive correlation between the attractive polarization of dark lake patches and aquatic insect densities on them as follows:
Abstract:
”The ecological implication of these findings could be that these dark lake-patches attract water-seeking polarotactic insects, which may oviposit more frequently in them than in the brighter lake water. However, it might not be matter if the they lay their eggs in these dark patches rather than the bright lake water, because this may simply increase the abundance of breeding flying insects in areas where dark patches are common.”
Introduction:
”In this work, we present the polarization characteristics of these dark lake-patches recorded by drone-polarimetry, and discuss their possible visual-ecological implication.”
- Discussion
4.2 Ecological implication: relationship between measured polarization and aquatic insects:
”Since aquatic insects may prefer the black harbour-water and the dark water patch, instead of the bright lake-water, they can lay their eggs into the former waters, where their larvae could accumulate. The in situ test of such an accumulation by samplings is an interesting task of future research. ... Only further ecological studies can reveal the net influence of these advantageous and disadvantageous effects on the accumulated larvae.”
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
