Potential Effects of Persistent Organic Contaminants on Marine Biota: A Review on Recent Research

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

General comment

The manuscript water-1338670 entitled “Potential effects of persistent organic contaminants on marine biota: A review on recent research” aimed to present and discuss the research that has been conducted on lethal and sub-lethal impacts of selected organic-synthetic contaminants on different marine species; also, the review summarized the combined effects after exposure to chemical mixtures of organic contaminants based on data published from 2016. The paper is interesting and fits well with the aims and scope of the journal. However, there are some issues that need to be addressed before it can be accepted for publication in Water.

Specific comments

• Line 70. Methods. The Authors have to specify the keywords inserted in the section “search” of the Scopus database.
• Line 80. How many documents did you find? Please, specify
• Figure 3. The annual number of records published for each selected chemical group should be reported in the text at line 109.
• Lines 437-446. The scientific names of the species must be reported in italics
• Remove the italics from the citations throughout the text

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

Specific comments

• Point 1: Line 70. Methods. The Authors have to specify the keywords inserted in the section “search” of the Scopus database.

Response 1: The specific keywords inserted in the search of the Scopus database are presented in lines 77-81.

• Point 2: Line 80. How many documents did you find? Please, specify

Response 2: The recommended specification was done by making the addition of the phrase “whereas the total number of found data was 4272 documents” at the end of the paragraph.

• Point 3: Figure 3. The annual number of records published for each selected chemical group should be reported in the text at line 109.

Response 3: Due to the large extent of the relevant data (that is the annual number of records published for each selected chemical group) the authors selected to present the information by using the figure. Therefore, additional information was placed within figure3 which was replaced by a new figure!

• Point 4: Lines 437-446. The scientific names of the species must be reported in italics.

Response 4: The correction was made throughout the text (for an unknown to the authors reason the format of many scientific names of the species was changed in many parts of the original submitted manuscript, and all authors hope that this time the same phenomenon will not be repeated again)

• Point 5: Remove the italics from the citations throughout the text

Response 5: Similar to the previous response (response 4)

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

 On account of the manuscript WATER-1338670, entitled “Potential effects of persistent organic contaminants on marine biota: A review on recent research” by Maria C Vagi et al., the authors reviewed the current status of the lethal and sub-lethal impacts of selected organic-synthetic stressors on different plant and animal marine species based on the data published from 2016, and discussed the future research needs depending on the knowledge gaps that may remain in the relevant bibliography. The topic is important to conduct environmental risk management for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the marine environment, and the authors got interesting results. The manuscript was well written and designed, and the authors provide valuable information for this research field. After careful consideration, I made a decision that the manuscript is acceptable for publication in its present form.

 

Special remarks:

‧ The present manuscript conducted systematic review for the current status of the lethal and sub-lethal impacts of selected organic-synthetic stressors on different plant and animal marine species to summarize the observed or predicted combined effects after exposure to chemical mixtures of such contaminants.

‧ Numerous ecotoxicological studies have revealed the direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic toxicants on marine biota.

‧ The present manuscript provided useful future prospects to better understandings for the environmental risk management of POPs in the marine environment.

‧ The interpretation of the evidence and arguments presented and conclusions are sufficient.

‧ The references cited relevant and up to date.

‧ The tables and/or figures are useful, necessary, and good quality.

Author Response

The authors would like to thank you for your positive remarks and comments on the submitted manuscript and send your best regards!