Respond to reviewer #1 structural concerns

[wkumler]

Reviewer 1 | 04 Sep 2024 | 01:18 Currently, the process of the entire system seems to be predictable. Although the author has introduced and discussed some gaps, especially from the perspective of chemical composition, and this article provides detailed data and reliable analysis, it is not prominent enough from the perspective of the entire system. Perhaps the transformation from space to time and the use of chemical composition to observe the aging process of vortices is a great highlight. It is very difficult to focus on scale eddies and the ecosystem evolution driven by them using traditional methods. If that's the case, the structure and writing style of the paper may need to be adjusted. This article focuses on the differences in chemical composition to understand this process, but I always want to connect it with specific biological processes, such as structural changes in biological communities, primary production rates, zooplankton grazing rates, or bacterial production and respiration rates etc. The author also mentioned these. I don't know if the author can add more relevant evidence or discussion to allow readers to connect with these specific biological groups and/or processes. I know it's difficult to integrate these data together, but relevant discussions are possible. We already know that mesoscale eddies are complex and dynamic multidimensional processes. The three-dimensional space combined with the temporal evolution of ecosystem structure and function. The changes in the density surface driven by physics during this process lead to the coupling reaction of physics chemistry biology, which is the main thread. In fact, many other physical biological coupling processes are similar, such as upwelling, internal waves/tides. Using the author's method, I think similar situations can also be seen in such processes.

[wkumler]

It sounds like this reviewer would like us to significantly expand our speculation on the implications of the data we've shown. I'm not especially surprised - I'm bad at extrapolating from the data so I'll probably need help from coauthors on this.

[wkumler]

I wonder if this is also a good place to pitch the sulfonium -> DMS -> cyclones cause climate change story.

[wkumler]

Maybe also a good chance to mention that eddies can be subducted and these results imply that if this is a cyclonic eddy, then there's a lot more labile organic carbon being introduced to the mesopelagic than if it's an anticyclone. Could mean a source of amino acids, vitamins, etc. for the dark ocean that hasn't previously been considered.