date: Mon Sep 3 15:51:52 2007 from: Keith Briffa subject: Your sumission to the Holocene. to: bjorn.gunnarson@natgeo.su.se Dear Bjorn Below is (Tom,s) review of your paper. It is generally favourable and I do not consider it necessary to get another opinion. If you would deal with all these points in a revised version , we would be happy to publish. Please pay particular attention to the specific formatting details in your revised submision and send this to me for checking (along with details of how specific points have been addressed) , I will then forward , if acceptable, to John Matthews. Thanks Keith Review : Temporal distribution pattern of subfossil pines in central Sweden Perspectives on Holocene humidity fluctuations - Bjorn Gunnarson The data presented are generally useful and well worth publication. A number of relatively minor changes, many to do with the use of English, need to be made. List of numbers presented in abstract. Probably best shown in a figure with centuries marked e.g. in an adjustment of Figure 5 and then mentioned in the discussion of this figure and referred to as a list of periods when .. in the abstract. Is there a problem with preservation e.g. does the lake level control the preservation of wood e.g. trees that die when lake levels are dropping may not be preserved? That tree growth ceased 6000 years ago at the highest altitude site suggests an altitudinal problem. RCS method presumes trees from similar altitude (or same altitudinal distribution over time). You probably need to mention this somewhere. Detailed comments (suggestions): All references to figures should be consistent e.g. Figure 3 Abstract Replace oldest trees with trees from the earliest periods Replace the time for tree growth with the time of tree growth Remove list of numbers entirely. P2, para 1 Do you mean accurately-dated changes rather than high-resolution changes? P2, para 2 Sentence What do we know about can be removed. P2, para2 - Has precipitation always been controlled by temperature Payette 2000 refers to the most recent Millenium only and to a different continent? P2, para 3 Replace were in Sweden with in Sweden were. P2, para 3 Replace thus affect the bog hydrologies were with affect the bog hydrologies and were. P3, para 2 end Replace when level with when the level P3, para 3 Replace The results from the studies with The results from studies P4, para 1 Replace in dependence of with dependant on. P4, para 3 Replace dendrochronology with tree-ring chronology. P5, para 2 Replace 830-560 m with 560-830 m. P6, para 1 Replace before being hoist to shore. A diver with in situ after which a diver. Replace after it could be by to enable the log to be. P6, para 1 Replace All discs were with Where possible, discs were P7, para1 Could add sentence to say that similar methods to Gunnarson 2002, Holocene were used. P7, para 1 Replace is known to by can. Replace longer climatic by long-timescale variance of climatic. P7, para 2 Replace In executing this method, by Ideally,. Replace Lower by here, because the lower. Replace which creates an uncertainty of the by creating uncertainty as to the. Replace I made the assumption that with The assumption was made that. Replace implies by assumes. Replace when the series were produced by when the trees grew. Do you mean different periods of time rather than different age classes. What is meant by form? The bias is to the shape of the RCS curve. P7-8, para 4-2 Could not find Figure 7? P8 Discussion replace with Results and Discussion P8, para3 Replace pines is still with pine samples still. Need to say relative to how fewer (trees or sites) . Replace Fig 4 with Figure 4b P8, para 4 Replace pine sample depth with pine sample counts P9, para 1, last sentence rapidly and quickly are vague. You need to say that the reaction wood was found near outside of the stem (if it was) one (2 or 3 ?) decades before mortality. P9, para 2 It is unlikely that an unsuccessful germination has occurred ???? P9, para 3 low growth coincides with Is this water-table induced mortality and low germination or is low temperature induced? P10, para 2 as fire refugee ?? maybe limits the spread of fire P11 para 1- Replace The observed differences decrease with The number of collected samples which are correctly dated (Table 1) will increase .. P11, para 2 depth. This could not have been possible replace with depth rules out the possibility of P11, para 3 for an open replace with of an open were partly representative for replace with included dampened replace with damped with open replace with with an open P12 280mm + 1.5 * 30 = ??? Are numbers correct. P12, para 4 no indications of varying temperature Are the tree-line changes a proxy measure of this i.e. your highest lake has no trees from recent millennia? Would no indications of varying temperature of sufficient magnitude to produce a negative water balance P13, para 1 Do you mean humidity or precipitation? P13 Conclusions summer temperature variability you did not show this in this paper Should temporal variations and be temporal variations of. Figure 1 caption. What is NW? Replace 1-7. Table 1 lake names. with 1-7 and described in Table 1. Replace Squares adjacent to Lake Annsjon marks the with Inset are large scale maps indicating the location of the sampled region within Sweden and squares adjacent to Lake Annsjon mark the. Figure 4 RCS chronology needs variance adjustment for sample count. Scale needs to be from 5000 BC to 2000AD. The trees at 2000 (count of nearly 100) do not appear to be sub-fossil from lakes either remove or explain e.g. in method, were they used in RCS curve etc? Figure 5 may be better presented with a line for each tree so that germination periods can be highlighted e.g. Figs 4 and 5, Leuschner, Holocene special issue 2002 would be clearer with only 350 samples. Table 1 Use North and East instead of x and y and make units clear e.g. 70.060º. Tom Melvin