Response to the comments by the Reviewer 1 Gerilyn (Lynn) Soreghan 

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3912-RC1 

Dear Professor Gerilyn (Lynn) Soreghan  

Thank you very much for your constructive review. We will incorporate all suggestions, and we have provided responses to your comments, which are highlighted in blue. 

This is an admirably ambitious review of the literature re Svalbard’s paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic history. It will serve as a great resource for anyone interested in the long-term history and data available for Svalbard. It is not intended to presented new data with substantial new ideas, but to review the record of this region that-- like the Indian subcontinent-- has traversed across latitudes through the Phanerozoic. 

Thank you for this kind review. 

It’s nicely written, albeit can become a little dense at times— e.g. the Cenozoic is nearly all in one gargantuan paragraph. Breaking this up a bit might make for easier reading. 

We will introduce a new paragraph break in the line 993. 

[It’s possible that the Intro could be shortened a bit, and parts of it put into Geologic Setting or such?] 

Ok, the lines 129-138 of the introduction will be moved to the geological settings. 

The figures are nicely done summaries of substantial data, although the font and symbol sizes are quite tiny in places, and thus difficult to decipher. 

We will revise our figures and increase font and symbol sizes.  

Other than that, I have only a few comments and suggestions, listed by line number below. 

143— “twice to nearly four times AS FAST AS…” 

Ok, will be fixed. 

144-149— the point about using Svalbard as an interesting case study, so to speak, for the phenomenon of polar amplification is interesting, but it has really only been situated in an arctic locale since the Cretaceous (from Fig. 3). So perhaps this statement should be qualified a bit. 

We will rephrase it.  

146— a bit unclear (to me) what is meant by model “gradients” 

We will rephrase it.  

506— Some might argue that it started in the latest Devonian (Fammenian)— with the late Devonian glaciation— well documented in South America, eastern North America, and other regions (albeit with minimal evidence for ice in the early Mississippian). 

We will include it.  

593— the rockS 

Ok, will be fixed. 

597— check author spelling here (Beauchamp?) 

Ok, will be fixed. 

689— space needed 

Ok, will be fixed. 

809— consider replacing “modest” with “low-resolution” 

Ok, will be fixed. 

826— space needed 

Ok, will be fixed. 

1144— Consider qualifying the statement re “remarkable continuous stratigraphic succession”— yes, it is indeed a remarkable record with significant representation through much of the Phanerozoic, but it is not without unconformities, so is not, strictly speaking, continuous. 

Ok, will be fixed. 

Figure 13 is a very interesting figure (reminds me of the path of India from polar latitudes to low latitudes— the opposite of Svalbard’s path). 

Thank you. 

Response to the comments by reviewer 2, Helmut Weissert Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3912-RC2 

Dear Prof.  Helmut Weissert 

We would like to thank you and acknowledge your efforts in reviewing our manuscript. We will incorporate all suggestions. Below, we provide responses to your comments, highlighted in green. 

A review paper typically includes a substantial number of citations. Maintaining an overview of the vast number of publications concerning Phanerozoic climate in relation to Svalbard is definitely challenging. Including early literature on a topic is advisable as it provides a time dimension to our research and shows how ideas have evolved over time. Consequently, several recommendations for additional references will be added to reflect this context. 

We are glad to include all suggested additional references. 

Climate evolution - I am little surprised that the authors never mentioned/discussed the establishment of the Pangea-Megamonsoonal climate during the Permian and Triassic. Commenting on the establishment of a monsoonal climate during the Permian and Triassic and discussing any evidence  (or mentioning "no-evidence") in the climate records that suggests a non-zonal climate is definitely beneficial. (see Parrish, 1991; Mutti and Weissert, 1995; or Preto et al., 2010, among others). The history of Earth provides excellent examples of “different climate worlds,” which aid in the understanding of the coevolution of life and climate. 

We will include a section highlighting the Pangea-Megamonsoonal climate during the Permian and Triassic.  

Evaluation of controversial data:  with your rich expertise you are in a position to critically comment on controversial data, this can be of help for the reader. E.g. line 555-560: Deceasing or increasing O-18 values? Can you possibly comment on these controversial interpretations? 

This section will be double-checked and rewritten. 

Comments 

Introduction 

Citations: line 68 add early literature on this topic: e.g. Seibold, E., 1990 Engineering Geology (or others) 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

line 88 citations: e.g. Wignall 2001 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

line 90 e.g. Weissert and Erba 2004 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

line 91 Erba and Larson, 1999 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

line 95 OAE’s,  Schlanger and Jenkyns 1976 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

line 195 Frasnian 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

line 243 …consists… 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

3.1.5.  (Key stratigraphic sections) > you may shift climate description in this paragraph to discussion to 4.2.1. 

Ok, it will try to adjust it. 

line 450   ….limestone/dolomite rocks 

Ok, will be fixed. 

4.1. You show C-isotope data in Fig 7 – I did not find any discussion of these data in paragraph 4.1. 

We will include the discussion on Ordovician.  

line 482 citations: Add e.g. Berner, R., 1993, 2005 

Ok, will be fixed. 

Fig. 8 what are the meanings of the green-blue colors in the simplified lithological profile? 

The colours have no meaning in context of this manuscript and will be removed.  

line 555-560 decrease or increase in oxygen isotope values? 

Ok, will be fixed. 

line 615 C-isotope anomaly and, also, oxygen isotope anomaly: e.g. Sun et al., 2012 

Ok, will be fixed. 

line 617 see also Sanson-Barrera et al., 2016, for an east Greenland data set 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

line 655 ….reflect… 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 660 circulation pattern in a megamonsoonal world ? see also Y. Hu et al 2022 (“emergence of the modern global monsoon…”) 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 671 citation e.g. Sun et al., 2012 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 680 you may also cite Leung, Zhang, Connell, 2022 for a stimulating discussion 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 735 >> followed by prominent positive C-isotope excursion across Smithian-Spathian boundary  (e.g. Galfetti et al., 2007, EPSL, negative spike followed by positive excursion). 

Ok, we will fix it. 

4.3.4  > A possible additional reference: Preto et al., 2010 

Ok, we will fix it. 

4.4.2.  > Time of collapsing Megamonsoonal climate (Sellwood and Valdes, 2010), time of ice buildup (Frakes and Francis, 1988) 

Ok, we will fix it.  

line 826 …the latter results…. 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 844 the record from the restricted Arabian carbonate platform is not very reliable if compared with eastern Tethyan pelagic records from the Hawasina Basin (Oman). There, the pattern of the J-C curve resembles the western Tethys pattern (see Celestino, Wohlwend et al, 2017). 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 914. See early citation of Parana volcanism in Weissert et al., 1998 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 1004  …excellent….excellent…. (revise wording) 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 1040 ….effects have been…. 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 2046 ….coupled… 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 1095. …models suggest… 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 1166   ...OAE1a. 

Ok, we will fix it. 

line 1196  >> add comment on Monsoonal climate 

Ok, we will add this. 

6.1. Monsoonal climate (e.g. Parrish 1993; Mutti and Weissert, 1995, Preto et al., 2010 etc) 

OK, we will include all references. 

Response to the review by anonymous reviewer 3  

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3912-RC3 

Dear reviewer  

We thank you for your constructive response on the manuscript. We agree with your suggestions and will address these in a revised manuscript. Please see our responses in brown: 

Lines 89-90: Saturation states of biologically important elements “ in the ocean” 

Fine. 

Lines 155-160 and figure 4: The authors describe five major climate types (A: Tropical, B: Dry, C: Temperate, D: Continental, and E: Polar) and state that these classifications are based on climatically sensitive deposits, paleontological evidence, and geochemical proxies. To enhance clarity, I recommend including a table summarizing the diagnostic criteria for each climate type. For example: Tropical (A): Presence of coal deposits, coral reefs, and warm-water fossils. This table would help readers better understand the basis for the climate classifications used in the study. 

We will provide a clarification in the form of a table outlining the main proxies used to create the plot. 

Figure 4: I suggest that if it is possible the authors include direct data records (e.g., a long-term carbon isotope curve for Svalbard) in Figure 4, rather than simply showing data coverage. This would provide readers with a more direct and insightful understanding of the carbon cycle history in Svalbard. 

The request for a Phanerozoic-scale plot with carbon isotope data presents challenges related to converting thickness into a timescale. Most of the data are collected along stratigraphic profiles in terms of thickness, and the time represented by the layers is highly uncertain. We have attempted this once before but were not entirely satisfied with the result; therefore, it was removed from the manuscript. In response to this comment, we will provide the requested curve. 

Line 581, the reported δ18O values range from +2‰ to +30‰, which appears unusually large. Could the authors verify these values? Please also specify whether these values are reported relative to VPDB or VSMOW. 

We will verify and correct the values here.  

Lines 659-670: In these lines, the authors discuss multiple geochemical datasets that indicate significant environmental changes during the End-Permian Mass Extinction (EPME). Are these data derived from the same drill core shown in Figure 9? If so, I recommend plotting these geochemical data in Figure 9 to visually illustrate the catastrophic environmental fluctuations during the EPME. This would make this data more accessible to readers. 

We will expand Fig. 9 with data from Zuchuat et al., 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109732 

in Figure 9, "VPBD" should be corrected to "VPDB," and some font sizes in the figure are too small to read comfortably. Please adjust the font sizes for better readability. 

Ok, it will be fixed. 

In Figure 12, "VPBD" should be corrected to "VPDB"  

Ok, it will be fixed.