Assessment of the Conservation Value of Abandoned Land on Gogland Island, Baltic Sea
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This article reports a well-designed and executed ecological survey of this Baltic island basically unoccupied since the Cold War. I have no issues over the survey, findings and references but find the discussion limited at one page and the conclusions VERY short. For the wide readership that can be expected the relevance of the study needs demonstrating: what comparator situations exist elsewhere? what human/policy interventions might be appropriate, and how justified? is 'returning to the Pleistocene' a realistic or desirable aspiration?
Author Response
Review 1
This article reports a well-designed and executed ecological survey of this Baltic island basically unoccupied since the Cold War. I have no issues over the survey, findings and references but find the discussion limited at one page and the conclusions VERY short. For the wide readership that can be expected the relevance of the study needs demonstrating: what comparator situations exist elsewhere? what human/policy interventions might be appropriate, and how justified? is 'returning to the Pleistocene' a realistic or desirable aspiration?
We extended discussion and conclusion expressing our viewpoint about the return to Pleistocene: it seems unrealistic now, but at least a partial return is promising and urgent in wildlife areas,
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Introduction
1. Paraphrase the sentence in L. 40-41.
2. Please avoid citing references in the text (eg: L-61, 78, 79). Provide reference numbers accordingly.
Methods
3. The methodology portion need to be rewritten in a scientific way. You can use subheadings under methodology as
2.1. Study area
2.2. Methods
4. The description regarding study area doesn't look apt for methodology part but introduction. So do the needful.
5. Font size is not uniform. Check lines 70-80.
Result
6. The subheadings are not given in a proper way and they are not uniform in size.
7. Use high resolution images for fig 1 and 2.
8. L-104 – 105. Sentence seems incomplete.
9. L-109 – 112. Paraphrase the sentence. Please add ‘and’ after ‘three species of amphibians’
10. L-110 – 111. Do not use of ‘comma’ in between common name and species name. Capitalize the first letters of the common name.
Example: Toad Bufo bufo, Common Frog Rana temporaria
Follow this throughout the manuscript.
11. L- 116 – Edit island ‘in’ as island ‘is’
12. In table 1, after 35th bird species, the 36th species is given in the next page whereas the 58th species is given in the same page. So you can rearrange the table 1 to fix it.
13. In table 1, the bird local names are not in a uniform format, and the alignment of second and third birds' names needs to be corrected. Un bold the scientific name of the species 3 in the table.
14. Please specify the camera model used for camera trap.
15. L-120. Paraphrase the sentence ‘The list of recorded mammal species included seven ones in 2000s’
16. L-122. Add ‘and’ after Common Shrew (Sorex araneus)
17. L-127. Edit. species ‘in’ 4-5 times as species ‘is’ 4-5 times.
18. Whenever you write the local name of a species write the first letter in capital (eg: L-120 – 126).
19. Result section required massive revision to reduce grammatical errors.
Discussion
20. L-180. Duplication of ‘is’. Please correct it.
21. L-195. Remove ‘a’ from ‘as they a used’
22. L- 203 – 204. Paraphrase the sentence.
23. Photographs in figure 3 need to be re-aligned.
Conclusion
24. The conclusion part seems too short.
References
25. Keep the references in uniform format and be careful for the spaces added.
Minor refinement required
Author Response
Introduction
- Paraphrase the sentence in L. 40-41.
We paraphrased it a little. It is not enough clear, what is wrong in the sentence. (“In particular, the Russian Geographical Society has been carrying out the Gogland Island expedition project for several years, in which we took part”)
- Please avoid citing references in the text (eg: L-61, 78, 79). Provide reference numbers accordingly.
We corrected the lines 61, 79, The line 78 is not a reference. This is a name of the used device
Methods
- The methodology portion need to be rewritten in a scientific way. You can use subheadings under methodology as
2.1. Study area
2.2. Methods
- The description regarding study area doesn't look apt for methodology part but introduction. So do the needful.
We rewrote the text separating study area and methodology
- Font size is not uniform. Check lines 70-80.
Checked, corrected font size
Result
- The subheadings are not given in a proper way and they are not uniform in size.
We corrected the subheadings
- Use high resolution images for fig 1 and 2.
We prepared the separate files with high resolution for pictures
- L-104 – 105. Sentence seems incomplete.
Corrected
- L-109 – 112. Paraphrase the sentence. Please add ‘and’ after ‘three species of amphibians’
Corrected
- L-110 – 111. Do not use of ‘comma’ in between common name and species name. Capitalize the first letters of the common name.
Example: Toad Bufo bufo, Common Frog Rana temporaria
Follow this throughout the manuscript.
Corrected.
- L- 116 – Edit island ‘in’ as island ‘is’
Edited
- In table 1, after 35th bird species, the 36th species is given in the next page whereas the 58th species is given in the same page. So you can rearrange the table 1 to fix it.
Corrected
- In table 1, the bird local names are not in a uniform format, and the alignment of second and third birds' names needs to be corrected. Un bold the scientific name of the species 3 in the table.
Corrected
- Please specify the camera model used for camera trap.
Specified (Bushnell Nature View)
- L-120. Paraphrase the sentence ‘The list of recorded mammal species included seven ones in 2000s’
Paraphrased.
- L-122. Add ‘and’ after Common Shrew (Sorex araneus)
Added
- L-127. Edit. species ‘in’ 4-5 times as species ‘is’ 4-5 times.
Edited
- Whenever you write the local name of a species write the first letter in capital (eg: L-120 – 126).
Corrected
- Result section required massive revision to reduce grammatical errors.
Discussion
- L-180. Duplication of ‘is’. Please correct it.
Corrected
- L-195. Remove ‘a’ from ‘as they a used’
Removed
- L- 203 – 204. Paraphrase the sentence. \
Paraphrased
- Photographs in figure 3 need to be re-aligned.
Re-aligned
Conclusion
- The conclusion part seems too short.
Conclusion was extended
References
- Keep the references in uniform format and be careful for the spaces added.
corrected
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
