Analysis of the Ecosystem Structure and Energy Flow in the Waters of the Wangjiadao Islands
, Jiuru Cui 1,2, Haifeng Gu 1, Yan Wang 1, Jiaxing Li 1,2, Min Xu 3, Jisong Yang 1,2 and Tao Tian 2
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Reference number 45 is not found in the reference list.
Put good photo for Map
Scientific names write it in Italic font
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Point 1: Reference number 45 is not found in the reference list.
Response 1: Thank you very much for your valuable advice. Reference number 45 has been added to the reference list.
Point 2: Put good photo for Map.
Response 2: Thank you very much for your valuable advice. The map quality has been improved.
Point 3: Scientific names write it in Italic font.
Response 3: Thank you very much for your valuable advice. The scientific names has been revised to italic font.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Overall the paper needs significant improvement to upraise its quality and make its messages clear including the following:
1. Major Grammatical editing
2. Certain points in highlights require significant editing. Only few have been highlighted, there are many sections where messages have not been clearly communicated and vague.
3. Results are mentioned and statistics presented, but validation is very poor throughout the study as to why stated what stated, why hypothesized what hypothesized, not only because others stated.
4. Discussion needs to improve and coherent, no intercorrelation between parameters have been shown with strength where one index would support the other etc.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Point 1. Major Grammatical editing.
Response 1: Thank you very much for your valuable advice. Grammatical editing and extensive revisions have been made to this article.
Point 2. Certain points in highlights require significant editing. Only few have been highlighted, there are many sections where messages have not been clearly communicated and vague.
Response 2: Thank you very much for your valuable advice. Lines 82-90 in the original draft have been re-explained to make the meaning of the sentences clear. Other parts have also been revised.
Point 3. Results are mentioned and statistics presented, but validation is very poor throughout the study as to why stated what stated, why hypothesized what hypothesized, not only because others stated.
Response 3:
Thank you very much for your valuable advice. The quality of the Ecopath model is mainly verified by the Pedigree index that evaluates the source and quality of the input parameters in the model. According to Morissette et al. (2006)[33], the Pedigree index of 150 Ecopath models around the world ranged from 0.16 to 0.68. The data in this study were mainly obtained from in situ biological resources and environmental surveys, and the Pedigree index of the constructed Ecopath model was 0.475, indicating that the input data of the model was reliable and the credibility of the model was high. (See in line 467-473(Revised manuscripts with revised marks) of the revised manuscript for details)
Point 4. Discussion needs to improve and coherent, no intercorrelation between parameters have been shown with strength where one index would support the other etc.
Response 4:
Thank you very much for your valuable advice. The Discussion section has been revised to make the two sections coherent. In addition, the discussion of the overall characteristics of the Wangjiadao waters ecosystem in the first part is closely related to the recommendations for releasing of enhancement speciese in the second part. Because the release amount of the enhancement species comes from the Ecopath model of the Wangjia Island marine ecosystem.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The MS analyzed the structure and energy flow of the waters of Wangjiadao Island based on the Ecopath model, as well as to evaluate the potential fishery enhancement. The results will provide some basis for fisheries management in the waters of Wangjiadao Island. Some comments are as follows:
1. There are several expressions on the research waters, such as the waters of Wangjiadao Island, the Wangjiadao Island marine cosystem, the Wangjiadao Island ecosystem, Dalian Wangjiadao Island, Wangjiajima Island, Wangjiadao islands waters Ecosystem, Wangjia Island etc. generally, the Wangjiadao Island ecosystem should cover the land ecosystem in the island, pls the authors check the expressions in the whole MS.
2. How to get the proportion of biomass of enhancement fishery species? can not find the number in the main body of the MS, such as sea cucumber biomass increasing by 242%, how to calculate this increasing proportion of sea cucumber?
3. In the materials and methods, why conduct the survey in April, September and November? Suggest to add some information to show the data representativeness, also showed the sampling sites in the Figure 1;
4. The letters in the formula should be italic, as well as in the main body of MS;
5. In the results part, Table 1, how to calculate the trophic level? Or the data source of trophic level should be covered; the tropic level of Ostrea gigas Thunberg, Scapharca broughtonii, and other molluscs are generally 2, in the MS, their trophic levels are more than 2, pls check the data;
6. The scientific name of marine living organisms should be italic in Figure 2 and 4, Table 5;
7. 3.1.4 and 3.1.5 are same in the MS;
8. In the discussion part, suggest the authors to focus on the main results of the MS, and have a further discussion and give some specific suggestions, which will be more helpful to the real fisheries management in the Wangjiadao islands waters;
9. There are some writing problems in the MS, and pls to check the language and logic of the MS, such as the “northern portion of the Yellow Sea”” Analysis of Energy Flow Data of Wangjiadao islands waters Ecosystem”; 2 should be superscript in “t.km2 t” in the MS,” as well as 2 and 1 in “km-2·a-1”;
Author Response
Point 1. There are several expressions on the research waters, such as the waters of Wangjiadao Island, the Wangjiadao Island marine cosystem, the Wangjiadao Island ecosystem, Dalian Wangjiadao Island, Wangjiajima Island, Wangjiadao islands waters Ecosystem, Wangjia Island etc. generally, the Wangjiadao Island ecosystem should cover the land ecosystem in the island, pls the authors check the expressions in the whole MS.
Response 1: Thank you very much for your valuable comments. The research area has been uniformly expressed as "Wangjiadao islands waters".
Point 2. How to get the proportion of biomass of enhancement fishery species? can not find the number in the main body of the MS, such as sea cucumber biomass increasing by 242%, how to calculate this increasing proportion of sea cucumber?
Response 2: Thank you very much for your valuable comments. The percentage of enhancement amount of fishery enhancement species is obtained according to the ratio of multiplication capacity to existing stock biomass. For example, the existing stock of sea cucumber is 54.20t/km², and the enhancement capacity is 130.8 t/km². The ratio of 130.8/54.2 is about 242%, and the corresponding percentage has been added in the article. I.e. “Compared with the original biomass (Table 2), it can be seen that the enhancement capacity of sea cucumber, Mizuhopecten yessoensis, Chlamys farreri, Ruditapes philippinarum and Portunus trituberculatus were respectively 130.8 t/km2(about 242% of existing biomass), 177.9 t/km2(about 42% of existing biomass), 5.4 t/km2(about 1.6% of existing biomass), 1 t/km2 (about 0.5% of existing biomass)and 1.72 t/km2(about 134% of existing biomass). ”
Point 3. In the materials and methods, why conduct the survey in April, September and November? Suggest to add some information to show the data representativeness, also showed the sampling sites in the Figure 1;
Response 3
Since the Chinese government implements a fishing ban system during the summer season from May to August every year, there is no survey of this water area. April represents late spring and early summer, September represents late summer and early autumn, and November represents winter. Therefore, the samples basically includes the species of the ecosystem in this waters, and the Ecopath model constructed basically reflects the ecosystem status of the Wangjiadao islands waters.
Survey stations have been shown in the Figure 1.
Point 4. The letters in the formula should be italic, as well as in the main body of MS;
Response 4:
Thank you very much for your valuable comments. Formula letters have been corrected to italics font.
Point 5. In the results part, Table 1, how to calculate the trophic level? Or the data source of trophic level should be covered; the tropic level of Ostrea gigas Thunberg, Scapharca broughtonii, and other molluscs are generally 2, in the MS, their trophic levels are more than 2, pls check the data;
Response 5:
Thank you very much for your valuable comments. Trophic levels were estimated from the Ecopath model. Table 1 is the functional groups that sampled organisms are divided into according to modeling needs. Biomass, Production / Biomass and Consumption / Biomass in Table 2 are the input values of the model (marked in bold italics in Table 2), and trophic level, Ecotrophic efficiency and Production/consumption are the output results of the model. The data in Table 2 have been labeled and a note has been added below Table 2.
Point 6. The scientific name of marine living organisms should be italic in Figure 2 and 4, Table 5;
Response 6: Thank you very much for your valuable comments. The scientific names has been revised to italic font.
Point 7. 3.1.4 and 3.1.5 are same in the MS;
Response 7: Thank you very much for your valuable comments. 3.14 remains unchanged, and 3.15 is revised to 3.1.5. General characteristics of Wangjiadao islands marine ecosystem.
Point 8. In the discussion part, suggest the authors to focus on the main results of the MS, and have a further discussion and give some specific suggestions, which will be more helpful to the real fisheries management in the Wangjiadao islands waters;
Response 8.
Thank you very much for your valuable comments. The article has been revised to give specific recommendations for enhancement measures for each of the major enhancement species.
Point 9. There are some writing problems in the MS, and pls to check the language and logic of the MS, such as the “northern portion of the Yellow Sea”” Analysis of Energy Flow Data of Wangjiadao islands waters Ecosystem”; 2 should be superscript in “t.km2 t” in the MS,” as well as 2 and 1 in “km-2·a-1”;
Response 9: Thank you very much for your valuable comments. The corresponding part of the article has been revised.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The article has been improved from before and can be considered for publication.
Reviewer 3 Report
1. In the materials and methods, how to design the sampling sites in figure 1? why conduct the survey in April, September and November? Suggest to add some information to show the data representativeness.
2. In the results part, Table 2, how to calculate the trophic level? Or the data source of trophic level should be covered;
3. The scientific name of marine living organisms should be italic in Figure 2 and 4. Actually, the authors can change the “Font style” to “Italic” in the model, and then change scientific name in the figure 2 and 4 to “Italic”;
4. There are several expressions on the research waters, such as the Wangjiadao Island water ecosystem, the Wangjiadao Island marine ecosystem, what is the difference between them?
5. -1 should be superscript in “410409 tkm2a-1” in the MS,” pls carefully check the similar mistake in the whole MS;
6. The references in the MS, the authors should revise according to the journal requirements, such as Morissette et al. (2006)[33]; Pauly et al. [27];
