Sediment Dynamics of the Neretva Channel (Croatia Coast) Inferred by Chemical and Physical Proxies
, Stefania Romano 2,*, Sonia Albertazzi 2, Francesca Chiarini 2, Mariangela Ravaioli 2, Marco Ligi 2 and Lucilla Capotondi 2
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Manuscript "Sediment dynamics of the Neretva Channel (Croatia Coast) inferred by chemical and physical proxies“ authors: Federico Giglio, Stefania Romano, Sonia Albertazzi, Francesca Chiarini, Mariangela Ravaioli, Marco Ligi, Lucilla Capotondi; present interesting research results and is very well written. The main contribution is describing the distribution of the River Neretva sediment in Neretva channel.
In chapter Conclusions I suggest to rewrite paragraphs to be conected and easier to read.
Line 14 - … toward the Adriatic Sea – can we read about this in presented paper
Line 69 - ... NE by the Croatian coastline and to the SW by the Peljesac Island Peninsula. – Pelješac Island-does it exist?-Remove Island. Peljesac peninsula is a part of Croatian coastline – correct it.
Line 72-73 - and with seasonal variation between the long-termmaximum and minimum monthly discharge low tomoderate – vaguely written, please rewritte
Line 95 - R/V Bio – see line 479-which ship was used? Correct it
Line 102-103 – X-Ray... before sub-sampling – please describe easier
Line 110-111 - pre-treatment with H2O2 in order to separated sand from finer fractions. Is it maybe to remove organic matter from particles???
Line 119 - sentence - All concentration and activities are relative to dry weight. See Line 121-...normalized to the sediment dry weight. – repetition
Line 129 – ...24Hz CTD..- 24Hz is not important-remove
Line 156 - Folk and Ward method – can we read this in methods?
Line 159 – sentence Porosities ... please insert that this is represented at Fig. 2
Line 167 – Please insert for TOC that this is represented at Fig 2.
Figure 2c – Estuarine? Maybe delta or brackish. See line 85
Line 171 – Mean Diameter – see Figure 2a were is written Mean grain size – equalize.
(Flow & Ward) – see line 156 – Flow or Folk?
Line 231 - fine grained pattern (>7.5 phi) – it is better to note this in methods
Line 247-248 - …due to microbial activity – see lline 297 .. strongly bioturbation – is it posible to „see“ microbial activity? Please, delite: due to microbial activity.
Line 309 - ..Channel border with the open see – actualy we can see that „the open see“ is channel area – please rewrite
Line 372 and 467 – Plejesac- ?- see figures Peljesac – correct it
Line 395 - …higher affinity.. – maybe positive correlated
Line 415 - Bc corect it - BC
Line422 - … in organic matter distribution (Fig 2b) – TOC – please correct
Line 442-444 – see line 456-458 – it is the same
In chapter Conclusions 3-5 paragraphs and 6-7 paragraphs rewrite to be conected and easier to read.
Line 480 – please insert number
Author Response
We thank this Reviewer for his/her positive statements on our work. All changes in the text are in red. We did all the changes he/she suggested as follows:
Line 14 - … toward the Adriatic Sea – can we read about this in presented paper
In the first paragraph of the “Study area” section, we better define how the Neretva Channel is connected to the open Adriatic Sea. Furthermore, Figure 1 has been revised clarifying the Neretva Channel location with respect to regional geography. We have added toponyms that were absent in the previous version.
Line 69 - ... NE by the Croatian coastline and to the SW by the Peljesac Island Peninsula. – Pelješac Island-does it exist?-Remove Island. Peljesac peninsula is a part of Croatian coastline – correct it. Line 372 and 467 – Plejesac- ?- see figures Peljesac – correct it. (Flow & Ward) – see line 156 – Flow or Folk?
Typos have been removed.
Line 72-73 - and with seasonal variation between the long-term maximum and minimum monthly discharge low to moderate – vaguely written, please rewrite
This statement has been rephrased for a better comprehension of the text.
Modified text:
… Here, the River has an average annual water inflow of 332 m3/s with peaks in December and April, and with a long-term seasonal variability in terms of minimum and maximum monthly discharge from low to moderate, respectively [20].
Line 95 - R/V Bio – see line 479-which ship was used? Correct it
The Research Vessel name has been corrected.
Line 102-103 – X-Ray... before sub-sampling – please describe easier
The methodology for the X-Ray scanning of sediment core was added.
Added text:
The BC short cores (~ 20 cm long) were radiographed via directional X-ray tube (M60 Gilardoni) using an aluminium and PVC filter, allowing the identification of sedimentary structures before sub-sampling. Once the cores were opened, sediments were described for visual characteristics and….
Line 110-111 - pre-treatment with H2O2 in order to separated sand from finer fractions. Is it maybe to remove organic matter from particles???
The sentence was rephrased for a better comprehension of the method.
Modified text:
Grain size analysis was carried out on separates following wet sieving on a 63 µm mesh-size sieve in order to separate sand from finer fractions after a pre-treatment with H2O2 to remove organic matter and favouring disaggregation between sediment particles.
Line 119 - sentence - All concentration and activities are relative to dry weight. See Line 121-...normalized to the sediment dry weight. – repetition
The sentence at line 119 “all concentrations and activities are relative to dry weight” was erased avoiding repetition.
Line 129 – ...24Hz CTD..- 24Hz is not important-remove
Text has been modified accordingly.
Line 156 - Folk and Ward method – can we read this in methods?
Folk & Ward method was added in the references list.
Line 159 – sentence Porosities ... please insert that this is represented at Fig. 2
This sentence has been rewritten.
Modified text:
… X-radiographs images together with depth distributions of sediment porosity and sand fraction of selected BC samples are shown in Figure 3. …. Sample porosities of the surficial level along the entire Channel range between 0.62 and 0.71. In addition, at each sampling site porosity slightly decreases with depth (toward the bottom of the BC) without abrupt changes through the sedimentary sequence (Figure 3).
Line 167 – Please insert for TOC that this is represented at Fig 2. Line 171 – Mean Diameter – see Figure 2a were is written Mean grain size – equalize. Figure 2c – Estuarine? Maybe delta or brackish. See line 85
Figure 2 has been improved according to Referee’s suggestions.
Line 231 -fine grained pattern (>7.5 phi) – it is better to note this in methods
Taking into account that here we are not referring to any method, we modified the sentence to overcome misunderstandings as follows:
Modified text:
In particular, accumulation of fine-grained particles (mean grain size > 7.5 f [38]) occurs mainly in two areas: in front of ….
Line 247-248 -…due to microbial activity – see line 297 . strongly bioturbation – is it possible to „see“ microbial activity? Please, delete: due to microbial activity.
This part of the sentence was deleted.
Line 309 - Channel border with the open sea – actually we can see that the open sea“ is channel area – please rewrite
The sentence was rephrased to a better comprehension. In addition, Figure 1 has been improved to clarify its position with respect to the regional geography and new details were added in the study area description.
Modified text in “Study Area” (paragraph 2):
The NC (Figure 1) is a narrow semi-enclosed basin located along the southernmost part of the Croatian coast. Oriented SE-NW, it is bounded to the NE by the Croatian coastline, to the NW by the open Adriatic Sea through the Korcula Channel and to the SW by the Peljesac Peninsula.
Modified text in study area paragraph 5.3:
In particular, the lowest SAR value of 1.9 mm/yr is found at site 06BC (Figure 6), located to the NW of the Channel at the boundary with the Korcula Channel, a location comparable to that of sample K3 of [16] where…
Line 395 - …higher affinity. – maybe positive correlated
Although, there is not a significant correlation between metal Pb and the fine-silt fraction, Pb distribution follows that of the silt fraction, hence we prefer talk about high affinity rather than positive correlation. However, we note that significant and strictly significant correlations had not been reported in Table 1. We modified Table 1, accordingly.
Line 415 - Bc corect it – BC
We corrected it
Line422 - … in organic matter distribution (Fig 2b) – TOC – please correct Line 442-444 – see line 456-458 – it is the same
We corrected it
In chapter Conclusions 3-5 paragraphs and 6-7 paragraphs rewrite to be connected and easier to read.
The English grammar has been revised through the manuscript and the text has been improved by Professor Enrico Bonatti, Special Research Scientist, affiliate to Earth Institute Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, NY.
Line 480 – please insert number
This number refers to published papers of the Institute of Marine Science of Bologna (CNR, Italy) and may be assigned only when manuscript is accepted for publication. It will be added during the proofreading step of the publication.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript “Sediment dynamics of the Neretva Channel (Croatia Coast) inferred by chemical and physical proxies” by Federico Giglo and colleagues presents a very interesting set of scientifically sound data that should be published. The interpretations and conclusions are overall supported by data, coherent and logical.
My main problem is the way the research is presented. There are a lot of problems with the written English. Their correction is far behind the role of a scientific reviewer, but I left a few edits and comments to guide the authors in the reformulation. Anyway, the manuscript should must be reviewed by an English native.
Other issues are also indicated in the annotated pdf uploaded for the authors.
I hope that this review will help to improve the work.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
We thank this Reviewer for the constructive and helpful comments on our manuscript. All Referee’s comments were carefully considered in the revised version of the manuscript. The text has been modified in compliance with reviewer´s suggestions in terms of: i) improving of the “Methods”; ii) revising the English grammar and improving the text by a Scientific English speaker (Professor Enrico Bonatti, Special Research Scientist, affiliate to Earth Institute Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, NY); and iii) updating the reference list. We feel the article is overall improved as a result of changes suggested. All changes in the text are in red.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors studied the transfer of sediments and their surf paths from the mouth of Neretva River, throughout the Neretva Channel, toward the Adriatic Sea. An interesting assumption has been made that the mechanism affecting the distribution of sediment on the bottom is a vortex caused or amplified seasonally by the interaction of karstic spring, the river input, and the Adriatic Sea water.
The manuscript is well structured, the presentation of the material is quite logical. Comments on the manuscript relate mainly to the design of the text and are put in the pdf file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
We appreciate very much the Reviewer 3’s positive comments. The manuscript was modified according to all Referee’s suggestions. All changes in the text are in red.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
I acknowledge that the authors changed the manuscript after previous evaluations and I have no further recommendations.
