Marine Heatwave Characteristics in the Makassar Strait and Its Surrounding Waters
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)
Although the authors have included some interesting analysis on MHW and some climatological indexes, main concerns expressed in the first review have not been addressed.
No comments
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)
Overall this is a well researched paper. However, the organisation of the text and the high level of detail means that key messages are rather lost to the reader. I would suggest (hence a recommendation for a major revision) that the Authors carefully consider the text and its organisation to ensure the paper is shortened and key outputs/outome messages can be clearly found.
The Introduction is very comprehensive, which is good, but it is long and there is repetition. A shortening and tightening of the text to ensure it stays focussed on the subject of the apper would make it easier to read and more impactful.
The first sentence of the Results section (L255) should be in the Methods section (section 2.4) and that section adapted to identify the actual MHWs found by the analysis.
The Authors should consider whether the analytical detail in the discussion section would be better incorporated into the Results section as the discussion messages become lost in the technical analysis.
L841 - why do they need improvement - what is wrong/missng from the current study and how this reduce (if any) the meaningfulness of the results reported?
The quality of English is good but could be tightened to ensure a good focus on the narrative the Authors seek to convey.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)
This paper is an interesting piece of work in which the authors analyse physical data related with Marine Heat Waves in a quite unexplored place of the oceans. I'm not an expert on the field, but I see a robust set of data that may be treated in a much more synthetic way to clarify the targets of the paper. I have to stress that the ecological part (bleaching) is insufficient, and may be you can avoid to put it. I made several comments on the manuscript that you will find attached.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)
I am satisfied that the Authors have modifeid the paper in light of review comments.
Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)
I think now the paper is ready to be published. The authors substantially changed the paper for the better.
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors
I am sorry for the delay in getting out my comments and suggestions.
I have read the ms on Marine Heatwave characteristics in Makassar Straight and surrounding waters and their possible impact on coral reefs. This is an exciting and relevant study as we see the increasing effects of heatwaves on coral reefs worldwide. Also, it is conducting in a very important location as far as coral reefs are concerned.
While the study itself is straightforward, I do have some comments and suggestions which will help this manuscript to improve from its present version
1. Do you have in-situ temperature data for those locations, if not all at least some
2. Do you have any survey data on the coral reefs to see what was happening in reality?
I think the authors missed recent work on this aspect and reading it and incorporating ideas in this paper will help make this manuscript more stronger and hence, I suggest to authors to carefully read the paper by
Wyatt, A.S.J., Leichter, J.J., Washburn, L., Kui, L., Edmunds, P.J., Burgess, S.C., 2023. Hidden heatwaves and severe coral bleaching linked to mesoscale eddies and thermocline dynamics. Nat Commun 14, 25. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35550-5
There has to be more interpretation of the oceanographic process to get a more in-depth idea of what is happening in Makassar straight and surrounding waters
I hope to read the revised version of this manuscript
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Please, see comments in the attached pdf
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript is well written, the topic addressed by the authors is of scientific relevance, and will be of broad interest to readers of Water journal.
Author Response
Please see attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
