Dear Dr. Maezumi,

Thank you for submitting a revised version of your manuscript, now entitled “Effects of past climate variability on fire and vegetation in the cerrãdo savanna of the Huanchaca Mesetta, NE Bolivia ”, and a detailed list with responses to individual comments. I am happy to confirm that your contribution is now ready for publication in Climate of the Past, subject to technical corrections.

There are only two corrections that I consider should be addressed in the manuscript:

1. Regarding the zonation of the phytolith data and the clustering method. You have added more detail in lines 391 to 394 and refer to the Broken-stick model as the method used to determine statistically significant zones. Dr. Whitney’s original comment refers to the method chosen to create the zones, but also asks whether or not “minimized dispersion was the goal of the zonation exercise”. It is still not clear to me whether i) the divisions chosen created the lowest dispersion within the clusters, and ii) if this is what the Broken stick model achieved.

I think it would be useful to add a sentence clarifying this at the very end of the 2.7 Phytoliths section.

2. Regarding Dr. Whitney’s comment on how significant 2 to 5 fire episodes over a 1000 year period is considered in the palaeofire record, and how it compares to records from similar vegetation assemblages. You have included a concise and clear response to this comment in the “responses to reviewer’s comments”, however I am unsure this is explained as clearly in the manuscript.

I would suggest taking this paragraph and adding it to the discussion of the paper itself.

I would like to invite you to address these two technical comments, and submit an updated version of the manuscript so typesetting of the paper can begin.

Many thanks again for submitting your contribution to the LaACER special issue.

Kind regards,

Dunia H. Urrego
Handling Editor