New Insights on Phytoplankton Communities as a Tool for the Sustainable Management of the Musselculture in a Mediterranean Coastal Site
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
thank you a lot for following my previous suggestion to include also the data from 2010-2014. This has improved your manuscript substantially, as you are now showing very nicely that the phytoplankton dynamics are well simulated, just as the longterm development which changed drastically. Being able to prove that point is an important highlight of your study and is not enough emphasized in my eyes.
Nevertheless, the manuscript improved substantially and is ready to get published in my eyes, although I still some potential improvements, as I suggested them in the attached document. I highlighted also some minor points, which you should work on for the final version of the manuscript.
Best regards, I cross my fingers that your paper gets all the attention that it deserves.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Reviewer 2 Report
Review for the paper "Phytoplankton communities as a tool for the sustainable management of the musselculture in a coastal site (Mar Piccolo in Taranto, Mediterranean Sea)" by Carmela Caroppo, Laura Giordano submitted to "Journal of Marine Science and Engineering".
I reviewed a previous version of this paper and recommended some revisions.
The authors have improved the text according to my suggestions.
Some additional remarks.
I suggest deleting the web-site from the Abstract.
L 36. Consider replacing " is also important" with " are also important"
L 40. Consider replacing " several researches" with " several studies"
L 55. Consider replacing " appear to have" with " appears to have"
L 62. Consider replacing " COastal Systems" with " Coastal Systems"
L 64. Consider replacing " to tackle with" with " to tackle "
L 68. Consider replacing " the assesment of coastal system and managing the mussel farming" with " the assessment of coastal systems and managing mussel farming"
L 74. Consider replacing " has been improved exploiting" with " has been improved by exploiting"
L 83. Consider replacing " stessed ecosystem" with " stressed ecosystem"
L 102. Consider replacing " the SI the more confined" with " the SI more confined"
L 103. Consider replacing " fluctuation of nutrient content" with " fluctuations in nutrient content"
L 142. Consider replacing " by spectrophotometric method" with " by the spectrophotometric method"
L 200. Consider replacing " represented in term of" with " represented in terms of"
L 260. Consider replacing " are showed" with " are shown"
L 267. Consider replacing " for years 2007-2014" with " for the years 2007-2014"
L 305. Consider replacing " all the sampling period" with " the whole sampling period"
L 317. Consider replacing " in summer and autumn" with " in the summer and autumn"
L 320. Consider replacing " even if slight" with " even if slightly"
L 350. Consider replacing " model show" with " model shows"
L 356. Consider replacing " simulated evidenced" with " simulated evidence"
L 357. Consider replacing " with 2007 value" with " with the 2007 value"
L 364. Consider replacing " while in the 2014" with " while in 2014"
L 366. Consider replacing " In 2009-2012 period" with " In the 2009-2012 period"
L 377. Consider replacing " SI respect to" with " SI in comparison to"
L 392. Consider replacing " during the 2007 until April-May 2008" with " from 2007 to
April-May 2008"
L 478. Consider replacing " is probably leaded" with " is probably driven"
L 501. Consider replacing " system response" with "a system response"
L 502. Consider replacing " a management" with " and management"
L 504. Consider replacing " future and to export this methodology in others" with "the future and to export this methodology in other"
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
thank you for submitting your interesting manuscript, regarding the modelled development of different phytoplankton groups in Mar Piccolo and related to that the mussel growth model.
While I´m convinced that your model approach is well described and may give reasonable results, I can not accept that you are only using data from 2007/2008. Especially, as you are describing several times on your own, how drastically the lagoon and its phytoplankton community has changed over the last years. Therefore, your results seem hardly applicable within SAF or an ESE assessment. This is a pity, as you refer on your own to newer data from 2013/2014, which must be incoorporated in your model analysis to give reasonable and usable conclussions. Only if you prove that your model is able to reproduce the longterm development considering the different environmental drivers, it can be published. As long as you only present the "old" data, I will not accept your manuscript. On the other hand, including the longterm trends and all available data from the last years will change your manuscript substantially, so that you will have to do more than a revision. Therefore, I suggest to reject a publication of the manuscript in the present state and to do a full reworking of it.
Best regards
Reviewer 2 Report
Review for the paper "New insights on phytoplankton communities as a tool for the sustainable management of the musselculture in a Mediterranean coastal site" by Carmela Caroppo, Laura Giordano submitted to "Journal of Marine Science and Engineering".
General comment.
Phytoplankton communities play a crucial role in the coastal ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea being the primary producers. Perturbations in the marine environment can significantly affect the structure and dynamics of plankton communities. Such perturbations may be associated with environmental variability and various impacts from human activity. Plankton populations have been found to be sensitive to environmental forcing and may demonstrate a wide range of responses as a reaction to the influence. In particular, primary and secondary production may be altered with climatic events of biogenic inputs from the human industries. These biological responses may have significant implications for processes of regional importance, such as natural and mariculature productivity, as well as the magnitudes of local carbon cycling and export. Therefore, sustainability of the inshore ecosystems should be evaluated for successful coastal management. The goal of this study was to characterize the phytoplankton variability in a coastal shellfish farming site located in the Mediterranean Sea based on a model simulation. The authors attempted to better understand the ecosystem functioning and to obtain novel data to support mussel farming. They found an increase in seawater temperature and rise in intensive mussel production in conjunction with a decrease in phytoplankton size and biomass. Results presented in the ms may be useful as a tool to regulate sustainable production of mussel farms in the coastal temperate regions. The ms is generally well written (in terms of English and general presentation). It has a good data set on an interesting site that has potential for future monitoring and comparison. Methods seem to be appropriate. Results are illustrated with relevant Graphs and Tables and statistically proved. Discussion is focused on the main findings and comprehensive. However, I would encourage the authors to slightly improve the ms according to my suggestions.
Specific remarks.
L24. Consider replacing "Mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819) farming is performed in the Mar Piccolo (MP) of Taranto (Ionian Sea, Mediterranean) since the early ’900s [16, 17, 18]. " with " Mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819) farming has been performed in the Mar Piccolo (MP) of Taranto (Ionian Sea, Mediterranean) since the early 1900s [16, 17, 18]".
L87. Please, provide more details on the study site (short overview of climate and hydrology).
Fig. 1. Update the map with coordinates.
L113. Please, indicate total number of phytoplankton samples collected for analysis.
L145, 401. " in situ" should be italicized. Also, indicate at which form means were presented (with SD or with SE).
L389. I suggest the authors provide a brief discussion regarding environmental variability in the study area. In particular, comparisons with previous records would help to understand possible climatic differences.
