The Vulnerability of Malagasy Protected Areas in the Face of Climate Change

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article titled Vulnerability of Malagasy protected areas in the face of climate change. Its general objective is intends to improve our understanding of the current and future threats to Malagasy PAs and their biota and ecosystems in the face of climate change. The article uses geoprocessing and digital cartography techniques combining current data and future climate projections. Figure 1 must be better constructed paying attention to the mandatory cartographic elements. For readers from other countries it is difficult to understand the location of the study area. It is recommended to include a more generalizable map, scales and coordinates.  The way it is presented to the reader and this evaluator cannot globally locate the study area. It is recommended to include a map of the landslides and conservation units in the country, so the reader will be able to understand the extent of the importance of conservation units for the country. The term speed of climate change in kilometers per year should be better defined in the text. The inclusion of some climate maps (temperature and precipitation) for the area and study would be important for data visualization. Aspects of the country's environmental legislation are important information for the construction and discussion of the work. Illustrations of representative landscapes of each ecoregion can help understand the importance of protected areas for the country. The impression one gets is that the researchers have never been to Madagascar. With these adjustments, I will have great pleasure in reading your article again.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Nice figures. My biggest criticism is that deforestation is not discussed enough, and more generally key citations are missing. It's important that the paper builds on previous work.  For example, see the work below that did a similar climate modeling exercise but found that deforestation would act faster than climate can.

Kremen C, Cameron A, Moilanen A, Phillips SJ, Thomas CD, Beentje H, Dransfield J, Fisher BL, Glaw F, Good TC, Harper GJ, Hijmans RJ, Lees DC, Louis E Jr, Nussbaum RA, Raxworthy CJ, Razafimpahanana A, Schatz GE, Vences M, Vieites DR, Wright PC, Zjhra ML. Aligning conservation priorities across taxa in Madagascar with high-resolution planning tools. Science. 2008 Apr 11;320(5873):222-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1155193. PMID: 18403708.

Morelli, T.L., Smith, A.B., Mancini, A.N. et al. The fate of Madagascar’s rainforest habitat. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 89–96 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0647-x

Vieilledent, G. et al. Combining global tree cover loss data with historical national forest cover maps to look at six decades of deforestation and forest fragmentation in Madagascar. Biol. Conserv. 222, 189–197 (2018).

-Figure 2 is very nice looking but not color-blind friendly. Also, the large count box at the bottom could easily be replaced by just adding the numbers to the figure in the top left

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Overall the writing could be tightened up, and specifically there is wording that could be improved. For example, the term critical/crucial appears 7 times - authors should show, not tell.

-Line 108: insert 'we' before provide

Lines 362-366: need to be rewritten. For example, reword "a potential natural equipment"

Author Response

Please see the attachment, thank you!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors included all observations indicated in the text. I believe that, depending on other opinions, the article is suitable for publication.