A Weight of Evidence (WOE) Approach to Assess Environmental Hazard of Marine Sediments from Adriatic Offshore Platform Area

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The Abstract should do a better job at summarizing the main point of the paper. Currently it provides too much detail, while at the same time not enough information about the results of the study. Main results and conclusion should be given here. The messages should come out stronger– that fits with what you have done.

For statistical analysis, it is not enough to specify analyses names only, it should be supported by the literature.

 

Author Response

This revised version was carefully modified according to the revisions suggested by the reviewers. The whole manuscript was carefully proofread and checked. We hope that the manuscript now meets the reviewers’ approval and the standards required by Water Journal.

The authors confirm that the work is original, it has not been previously published and it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Loredana and coauthors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The work entitled " A Weight of Evidence (Woe) Approach to Assess Environmental Hazard of Marine Sediments From Adriatic Offshore Platform Area" proves to be an original, well-structured and generally well-founded work. The summary is a well constituted synthesis of the all work. The authors made a clear and concise introduction. In the material and methods section, some parts need revision to make the work clearer and more complete. The results and discussion are generally well presented and well founded. The work lacks a final conclusion about the originality and applicability of the work. All correction suggestions are in the attached file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

This revised version was carefully modified according to the revisions suggested by the reviewers. The whole manuscript was carefully proofread and checked. We hope that the manuscript now meets the reviewers’ approval and the standards required by Water Journal.

The authors confirm that the work is original, it has not been previously published and it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Sincerely

Loredana and coauthors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Reviewer Comment to manuscript water-1245401

[A Weight Of Evidence (WOE) approach to assess environmental hazard of marine sediments from Adriatic offshore platform area]

 

The subject of the work is interesting about the high practical use.

The research was carried out well and the conclusions drawn are directly derived from the results.

The article can be published after clarification (see below):

Please present in detail the methodology of sediments sampling (this is important due to the credibility of the obtained results). Was it done in the same way at all test and control stations?

According to the reviewer at the end of the work should point out the most important conclusions.

A suggestion for the authors to consider in future studies of this type:

In this type of research, using elements of biomonitoring, an important issue is the biomagnification process. Because the stressors contained in the environment (e.g. heavy metals) may have a very degrading effect (due to their high accumulation) only on organisms living at higher trophic levels.

Author Response

This revised version was carefully modified according to the revisions suggested by the reviewers. The whole manuscript was carefully proofread and checked. We hope that the manuscript now meets the reviewers’ approval and the standards required by Water Journal.

The authors confirm that the work is original, it has not been previously published and it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Sincerely

Loredana and coauthors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf