The development and persistence of doldrums over the Great Barrier Reef

Richards, Lara S.; Huang, Yi; Barnes, Michael A.; Jin, Chenhui; Muhammad, Fadhlil R.; Harrison, Daniel P.; Siems, Steven T.

doi:10.5194/wcd-7-1977-2026

Articles | Volume 7, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-1977-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-1977-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 4

Research article

|

13 Oct 2026

Research article |

| 13 Oct 2026

The development and persistence of doldrums over the Great Barrier Reef

Lara S. Richards, Yi Huang, Michael A. Barnes, Chenhui Jin, Fadhlil R. Muhammad, Daniel P. Harrison, and Steven T. Siems

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Final revised paper (published on 13 Oct 2026)
Preprint (discussion started on 19 May 2026)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2026-2114', Anonymous Referee #1, 13 Jul 2026

Please find my review attached.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2114-RC1
RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2026-2114', Anonymous Referee #2, 28 Jul 2026

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2114/egusphere-2026-2114-RC2-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2114-RC2
AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2026-2114', Lara Richards, 04 Sep 2026

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2114/egusphere-2026-2114-AC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2114-AC1

Peer review completion

AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload

AR by Lara Richards on behalf of the Authors (04 Sep 2026) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (08 Sep 2026) by Shira Raveh-Rubin

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (18 Sep 2026)

For final publication, the manuscript should be

accepted as is

accepted subject to technical corrections

accepted subject to minor revisions

reconsidered after major revisions

rejected

Were a revised manuscript to be sent for another round of reviews:

I would be willing to review the revised manuscript.

I would not be willing to review the revised manuscript.

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Most of my recommendations have been implemented in a helpful way for the readership. I have two remaining requests:
1) Change warm conveyor belt track density -> warm conveyor belt air parcel density or something along these lines, because in the literature track density is rather used for weather systems such as cyclones or MCS and not Lagrangian air parcels.
2) I am disappointed by the reviewer's shallowness of their reply to my comment 1.10. I do think that they could go more into depth with respect to an explicit formulation of the mechanistic link between the tropical and extratropical dynamics and in terms of reader guidance. The transition between section 3.2 and 3.3 is very abrupt and 3.3. needs motivation and a better connection to what has been done in 3.1 and 3.2. Especially in light of their arguments concerning the novelty of their study compared to a previous one when answering the major reviewer comment 2.1. While I appreciate that the authors introduce the WCB analysis, phrasing the primary tropical-extratropical link simply as "moisture" is overly vague. Moisture is a thermodynamic state variable and not a physical mechanism. How about helping the reader to connect what is done in Section 3.2 to Section 3.3 by adding just a few sentences. I appreciate that the overarching synthesis of tropical-extratropical interactions is reserved for Section 4. However, at the beginning of Section 3.3 on tropical dynamics, at L. 267 after the introductory sentence we need a connection to 3.2 on dry intrusions and 3.1 on extratropical dynamics, which could be something along the lines of:
“Tropical wave activity could provide a critical thermodynamic and dynamical link to extratropical dynamics by supplying the tropical moisture that fuels poleward-ascending WCB airstreams. Diabatic latent heat release within these moist WCB airstreams modifies upper-tropospheric potential vorticity (Pfahl et al. 2015), which acts to reinforce downstream anticyclonic blocking over New Zealand and stall Rossby wave packets. Investigating tropical wave activity (MJO and ER waves) is therefore essential to clarify how tropical moisture availability and wave-induced circulation anomalies dynamically sustain the coupling between tropical and extratropical dynamics.”

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (19 Sep 2026) by Shira Raveh-Rubin

AR by Lara Richards on behalf of the Authors (25 Sep 2026) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (29 Sep 2026) by Shira Raveh-Rubin

AR by Lara Richards on behalf of the Authors (01 Oct 2026) Manuscript

Short summary

The doldrums are regions of light winds and relatively clear skies found in the tropics. They often occur during severe coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef yet remain poorly understood. This study examines why the doldrums form and persist, identifying how both tropical and extratropical weather systems align to first form the doldrums and how the stalling of these weather systems prolongs the doldrums over the Great Barrier Reef.