Coral Reef Community Changes in Karimunjawa National Park, Indonesia: Assessing the Efficacy of Management in the Face of Local and Global Stressors
, Julie Vercelloni 1,3, Benjamin P Neal 1,4, Ambariyanto 5, Dominic E.P. Bryant 1,6, Anjani Ganase 1,6, Patrick Gartrell 1, Kristen Brown 1,6,7, Catherine J.S. Kim 1,6, Mu’alimah Hudatwi 5, Abdul Hadi 5, Agus Prabowo 8, Puji Prihatinningsih 8, Sutris Haryanta 8, Kathryn Markey 1,2, Susannah Green 1, Peter Dalton 1, Sebastian Lopez-Marcano 1,9, Alberto Rodriguez-Ramirez 1,7, Manuel Gonzalez-Rivero 1,10 and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg 1,2,6add
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Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Methodologies of ecological surveys, data processing and statistical analysis are extensive, detailed and sound, and the conclusions derived from them are convincing. The methodologies and their conclusions should be applied and considered in management activities not only in this park but also in other MPAs. This is particularly important as some of their points are different from general ideas that protection zone acts to sustain healthy corals and the bleaching in 2016 damaged most corals in the world.
However, I cannot obtain an actual image of this area hidden behind the statistical results. So, I hope the authors to add the following information.1) Description of reef landforms of the zones and transect. The transect was
described as set on “the fore reef contour at a depth of ~7-9 m (line 229)”. Are there any shallow reef flats in this park?
2) Regarding the reef landform, is there any reef rock exposed, or included in sub-groups in EAM?
3) Several genera of corals are identified and classified in benthic sub-groups. I wonder which genera of corals are included in MASE: Large rounded corals. Are there not much Dipsastraea (former Favia), Favites Goniastrea or Astrea (former Montastrea), which are common in the western Pacific in this area? I agree only the eco-forms of corals identifiable by the camera survey are shown, but dominant or representative species for each sub-groups should better to be shown.
4) What genera or species of algae are included in the Group of Algae: in particular which species of brown algae distribute in this park?
5) Oceanographic conditions (wave, current, tide) and water quality (concentration of nutrients, which are discussed in 4.4.2 without actual concentration values).
6) Locations of towns or residential areas on land, which may degrade water quality.
In lines 275 to 277, families included in the group of Hard Coral are listed (but including both family and genus names). Which monograph do the authors refer to? The classification system of corals has recently been restructured: e.g. genus name of Favia in the Indo-Pacific has been replaced by Dipsastraea, and family name Faviidae has no more been used and Merulinidae has been applied covering many genera of massive corals. The restructuring process of coral classification is on-going and this paper needs not be updated, which applies practical identification keys for eco-forms by camera survey methodology. However, at least the monograph the authors rely on must be referred to.
Letters in Figures 1, A1 and A2 are difficult to read unless enlarged on a monitor.
Table A2:
In the descriptor column, abbreviations the readers cannot understand should not be used. Some abbreviations are used also in the main text and Figure 4, which made the paper difficult to read.
Heliopora is listed both in MINV_SFC_E and BRA_SMO_Po.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This is a very interesting article that provides important information and techniques to be used in other reef zones around the world.
Great work, though there are some comments I would like to do:
Use of commas: the authors sometimes use commas to separate thousands, but sometimes they do not. Please, use one notation (my advice: use commas). See Lines 78, 84, 105
Table 1: describe what you mean by “Traditional use”.
Figure 1 is not placed near the place where it is first mentioned.
Line 157: delete the word “to” and add a comma after 2016.
Line 159: re-write to clarify. What do you mean by “going on to die”?
Line 213: Delete first “and”.
Line 219: write “numbers”, instead of No´s.
Line 221: should be across the park different… no parks.
Figure 1. this is a nice figure, but it is very hard to see. It is up to the editors, but it would be more useful if placed in a portrait page design.
Figure 1. Use American English; colored, color, etc., and be consistent (line 246, 254, 426
Figure 1. Do you mean statistically significant?
Line 293: The terms jth and ith are not clear. Please, clarify them.
Figure 2: I loved it. It is easy to understand and clear. If possible, change the color of the percentages.
Figure 3: If possible, the word Estimates should be in smaller font. The words “panel” are unnecessary, just write a and b.
Line 352: the word Sponges should be in italics.
Figure 4. Estimates in smaller font. Explain the codes used. If possible, make it bigger.
Line 380: Acropora in italics. Also in 574, 635, 636
Line 406: Clarify the difference between MSE and MSEM.
Figure 5: This one is very useful too, but the red dots should be bigger, they are almost invisible.
Line 464: Algae and Hard coral should be in italics.
Line 470: add a comma after Meanwhile.
Line 524: replace an for a.
Line 549: replace affect by affected.
Line 568: replace run off for runoff.
Line 590: add the word in: declines IN macroalgal…
Line 610: add a comma after However.
Line 673: delete the repeated word managers.
Fig. A1: top and bottom should be in small caps.
References: journals names should be abbreviated.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
