PONE-D-23-10398Amazon River plume habitats shape planktonic cnidarian assemblages in the Western AtlanticPLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This manuscript reports for the first time the effect of the Amazon River plume (ARP), one of the largest river discharge plumes in the world, on the planktonic cnidarian community composition. By sampling across a huge swathe of variation in oceanographic conditions, this study provides extremely valuable insights on the hydrographic factors that drive the distribution of many understudied gelatinous species.

PLos One is a general audience journal and therefore the authors should define specialized oceanographic jargon (such as retroflect) as well as avoid shortcuts with implicit units and assumptions on the audience's knowledge of how a plankton net works and what different meshes refer to, for example. The RDA shows confounding distribution of factors between the mesoscale features (i.e. cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies) and the distribution of oceanic/neritic zones with Neritic and ARP vectors. This may be because all the observed eddies occur exclusively in some areas. Perhaps a subsetted analysis with only neritic or ARP/non-ARP sample data could better resolve their influence on planktonic cnidarians.

Line by line:

27: we concluded -> we hypothesized

99: define retroflection

114: remove space before period .

118: achieved -> obtained

120: under a stereomicroscope; double "and"

122: provided -> published/reported

133: give units to 35 and 22

134: give units to 24.5

141: in samples from nets with ... meshes. Thus we merged the data from both meshes for statistical analysis.

142: unique -> only

158: avoid starting sentences with numbers i.e. Zooplankton biomass from nets with 120µm ...

159: availability for planktonic cnidarians

174: and stations

182: give units to 35

185: (mean of samples collected with 120 and 300 μm mesh nets)

189: units for 35

192: units for 36...

194: units for 35

209: florescence -> fluorescence

246: number of species -> species richness

247: first -> top

262: see comment for line 185

283: see comment for line 185

321: A Monte Carlo

383: metabolism -> metabolic demand

385: is turbid -> has low visibility

386: take vantage from other competitors -> outcompete visual predators

400, 402: M. kocchii -> M. kochii (perhaps also elsewhere in the manuscript)

432: schscholtzii -> esschscholtzii

435: units for 32.5

436: units for 36

459: conclude -> hypothesize (this study does not formally test the mechanistic hypothesis behind the biogeographic correlations)

463: kochi -> kochii

Fig. 2: SSS needs units

Figures all have poor image resolution, perhaps this is just for the review version.

Reviewer #2: I believe that the work makes an exceptional contribution to science, considering that this type of research and the impact of the Amazon River on the environment in this way has not been researched or published until now. It is necessary to make corrections of the English language and with minor changes I propose that this paper be published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Line 31-33 – I this system Persa incolorata…. were representative species.

Line 37- We concluded…

Line 49- Clarify sentences

Line 88-90- Reorganize this sentences

Line 158- exclude to start sentence with number

Line 184- In section “Environmental background –Figure 2 zooplankton biomass is mentioned. It is better to separate environmental parameters from biological parameters

Line 196-197- All collected data are from October 2012

Line 250-251 Reorganize sentence

Line 448-450 Clarify more…

Table 2: Typical default for statistical packages is to print three decimals (for p value)

Line 368-378 - Try to leave out the use of Figs in the discussion. If the description of the figures is in question, it has its place in the results. Move part of the discussion to the results, and then in the discussion focus on comparing the results and drawing conclusions.

Reviewer #3: Please see the attached file.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-23-10398_reviewer.pdf

Amazon River plume habitats shape planktonic cnidarian assemblages in the Western Atlantic

PONE-D-23-10398R1

Dear Dr. Tosetto,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Vitor Hugo Rodrigues Paiva, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: All my comments have been adequately addressed and minor issues have been corrected. I can now recommend this manuscript for publication.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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