Ecological Impacts of Coastal Protection on the Vegetation of Sandy Coasts at the German Baltic Sea Coast

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please check the attachment.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Some minor grammar and word choice issues. Nothing that cannot be fixed.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

I have revised the manuscript and I guess it is an interesting work that can be published after minor changes. I have a few specific observations.  

 Abstract

What are the numbers? Number 1 is missing…….anyway I suggest to erase all numbers…

 Keywords

I suggest to erase coastal protection because it is already in the title

 

Lines 80-83, I suggest to insert the question tang (?) at the end of each sentence.

 Line 93, it is better to say: ensured by cliff RETREAT. These..

 Line 93, I suggest: These cliffs  are located in the 15 km coast section between the TWO municipalities AND ARE ACTUALLY protected BY x (insert number) of breakwaters to prevent a retreat of the coast

 Line 100, are sure of the time? “ 2022/23” it does not fit with the one indicated in the Figure 1 caption…

 Line 104, I suggest “are installed NORMALLY to the beach..”

 Lines 106-117, I guess the description is a bit boring….this part could be greatly reduced and information presented in a table.

 

Line 111, why a depth of 20 cm? Is there any rationale behind this value? Vertical beach morphological variation values?

 

Figure 1. In the small location framework I suggest to add some location, e.g. Germany, North Sea….whatever is it possible, and you can enlarge it. I suggest to make JUST one figure of the studies areas….the two figures are very similar and the scale difference is not so great to justify two of them.

 Lines 151-152…Can be wave’s climate or meteorological climate be responsible, even in part, of such changes…this is just a question…

Can the date of the monitoring survey affect the presented results?

 Line 204, I suggest to say: coverage > 10 %...and the same in the following line..

 Line 205: I suggest: as well as 6 and 18 months after.

 

Line 220. The sites are CLOSE.

 Line 266, please revise the name.. Honckenya

 Line 367, I suggest to erase “But”….the same at line 375.

 Conclusions usually have NO references.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Just few comments - I presented them above

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper aims to compare the ecological effects of coastal protection measures (CPM) on the vegetation in coastal environment. Regarding the research method, the authors conducted nutrient analysis and botanical mappings on a site where groynes were installed. The main finding of the study is that groynes may help to stabilize the coastal system and enable dense vegetation growth. Moreover, sand nourishments may lead to nutrient input and unstable habitat conditions attracting certain plant communities but preventing the establishment of ground-covering vegetation. In my opinion, this is a nice experimental work and it can be a meaningful contribution to the body of knowledge.

The authors are encouraged to revise the paper according to the following points:

1) Consider to remove the numbering in the abstract.

2) In section 2: How were the study sites selected for comparison (groynes, sand nourishment site, control site)? What criteria were used? Please add some comments regarding these issues.

3) It can be beneficial for readers if the process for botanical mappings can be described in more detailed (e.g. field works, equipment used, …).

4) In section 4: if applicable, please use some statistical hypothesis tests for affirm that the used methods are appropriate for capturing changes in vegetation due to the coastal protection measures.

5) In section 5: if possible, please elaborate on how to use the research findings to improve the current practice of coastal management in the study area.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The reviewer recommends the acceptance of the manuscript.