Phylogeography and Genetic Structure of the Swimming Crabs Portunus sanguinolentus (Herbst, 1783) in East Asia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. English must be improved
2. Figures quality must be improved
3. Discussion on how the results of the present study could be used for better manage and protect the species must be added
4. The choice of the species, as well as the populations, must be explained and argued.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

All [page number] and [line number] represented below are referred to the revised manuscript.

Ms. Ref. No.:  jmse-1577336
Title: Phylogeography and genetic structure of the swimming crabs Portunus sanguinolentus (Herbst, 1783) in East Asia

Reviewer #1: Comments to jmse-1577336 by Lu et al.:

• P2L79-80, Explain how?

Ans: We add and supplement this paragraph in the methods section. “Functional genetic diversity in an exploited marine species and its relevance to fisheries management.”

 

 

• The Figure 2 is not readable.

Ans: We have fixed the resolution of the Figure 2.

 

 

• The figure 5 is not readable.

Ans: We have fixed the resolution of the Figure 5.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments on the manuscript: Phylogeography and genetic structure of the swimming crabs Portunus sanguinolentus (Herbst, 1783) in East Asia

 

General Comments: This manuscript prevents evidence on the phylogeographic history of a swimming crab species. Overall, the manuscript introduction sets the stage well for their study and gives ample background information on the historical context of their work. I very much appreciated this introduction.

 

The manuscript is fairly well written and conceived, besides a few awkward phrases that I have commented on below. The discussion is well written and straight to the point.

 

Without any specific training in the exact genetic methods conducted in this manuscript, I cannot comment on the validity of their results and conclusion. But I do believe that the authors provide a lot of detail which I appreciate.

 

Specific Comments:

 

Overall, I think that the abstract could include more background information and to set the stage for the results. But that might just be a personal preference. The majority of the background (phylogeography) information is at the end of the abstract, and I think that it should be moved to the beginning to tell the same story that the introduction does.

 

L18: maybe change to “South East Asia” as this is the normal way to describing those directions (not East South)

L38: “the current phylogeographic patterns” of what? Of animals? Plants? Organisms?

L39: Maybe “worked together” is not the right way to say this. Perhaps, “The effects of climate change, biology, and geography interact to”

L42: It is unclear what islands ”these islands” are

L49: What is LGM? This acronym is not introduced in the manuscript.

L61-62: Add a reference here?

L79: Does this species require any specific conservation attention? You state (in lines 77-78) that the populations of decline, and then you jump right to this species potentially needed to be managed and protected.

Figure 4: Does the scale bar need numbers or a “MYA” scale?

L284: How much older exactly? Be specific

L292: Past tense. Was blocked?

L294: I am confused as to what this sentence is trying to say? Please rewrite.

L295: “A similar pattern”

 

Author Response

Reviewer #2: Comments to jmse-1577336 by Lu et al.:

• Overall, I think that the abstract could include more background information and to set the stage for the results. But that might just be a personal preference. The majority of the background (phylogeography) information is at the end of the abstract, and I think that it should be moved to the beginning to tell the same story that the introduction does.

Ans: We still want the abstract to be presented like this.

 

 

• L18: maybe change to “South East Asia” as this is the normal way to describing those directions (not East South).

Ans: We modified this sentence.

• L38: “the current phylogeographic patterns” of what? Of animals? Plants? Organisms?

Ans: We added the sentence “the current phylogeographic patterns of marine organisms”.

• L39: Maybe “worked together” is not the right way to say this. Perhaps, “The effects of climate change, biology, and geography interact to”

Ans: Thanks for your comment, we change to “the climate change, biology, and geography interact to…”.

• L42: It is unclear what islands ”these islands” are

Ans: We modified this sentence.

• L49: What is LGM? This acronym is not introduced in the manuscript.

Ans: We added the sentence “During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM),”.

• L61-62: Add a reference here?

Ans: We have added references.

• L79: Does this species require any specific conservation attention? You state (in lines 77-78) that the populations of decline, and then you jump right to this species potentially needed to be managed and protected.

Ans: Functional genetic diversity in an exploited marine species and its relevance to fisheries management.

• Figure 4: Does the scale bar need numbers or a “MYA” scale?

Ans: Thanks for your comment. Figure 4 is mainly used to explain the AMOVA analysis of Table 5.

• L284: How much older exactly? Be specific.

Ans: We added the sentence “(approximately 160,022 and 322,744 yrs ago, respectively) ”.

• L292: Past tense. Was blocked?

Ans: We modified this sentence.

• L294: I am confused as to what this sentence is trying to say? Please rewrite.

Ans: We have deleted sentences.

• L295: “A similar pattern”

Ans: We fixed this sentence.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx