Predicting Habitat and Distribution of an Interior Highlands Regional Endemic Winter Stonefly (Allocapnia mohri) in Arkansas Using Random Forest Models

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I have read the manuscript with pleasure. Despite the fact that it discusses the distribution models of only one species, this manuscript can be used in the future by other scientists. The manuscript combines the results of field research and good statistical processing with modeling. I have a few comments.

- The introduction contains a significant amount of information. Shorten the introduction and leave only the necessary information.

- Line 189-193. This information could be in the Conclusion or Discussion.

- In Figure 2, give a more clearly drawn diagram.

- In Figure 3, there is no information after the words "A. mohri presence (???)".

- There is no Conclusion in the manuscript. Write a conclusion.

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

Thank you for an interesting manuscript. Accept in present form.

Author Response

The reviewer recommended the manuscript be accepted as-is. I appreciate the reviewer's time and recommendation. 

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors presented a study on a macroinvertebrate species distribution

in a river ecosystem. Generally, the study is noteworthy, I have few minor comments with the present manuscript which I believe the authors can adequately address. 

L41-44: I suggest not limiting the sentence to plecopteran/insect larvae. generally, species of macroinvertebrate as primary consumers in trophic pyramids play important roles in ecosystem energy flow. more example on other species can emphasise their significant role in ecosystem, for example see shokri et al, 2021: A new approach to assessing the space use behavior of macroinvertebrates by automated video tracking. Macroinvertebrate species dont only feed on terrestrial plant, or allochthonous resources, they also feed on aquatic plant and autochthonous resources.

L85-88: more recent studies can be added here.

Fig1: would be helpful if authors could add the coordinates, North arrow in the map

Table1: As the authors stated that environment temperature is one of the main factors driving the distribution of the species, it is important to state if the temperature in the table is the air or water temperature. 

L252-265: Add the equipment used for species collection

L297: MLR corresponds to what, multiple linear regression?

Fig2: I suggest authors setting same axis limits of the number/occurrence of the species on the plots. explain also the abbreviation used for ecoregion in figb

Table4: Remove R from the legend

L478_484: I suggest authors to link and discuss their finding specially on the effect of climate change on the southernmost species distribution with other studies and on other macro-invertebrate species (for example see Shokri et al, 2022: Metabolic rate and climate change across latitudes: evidence of mass-dependent responses in aquatic amphipods, 

Pélissié et al, 2022: Range Shifts With a Chance of Co-occurrence Reshuffling in the Forecast for Northern European Odonates). In this way, the authors can show that their findings would be expected as a general phenomenon in the face of global warming.

Author Response

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