Dear Dr Ikenoue,

Thanks for extensive revision. Please see an attached my comments> I would appreciate for your further revision.

Yutaka Watanuki

Dear Dr Ikenoue,

Thanks for major revision. The MS is improved and will be acceptable. Contents of discussion seem to be appropriate. English, however, especially in the paragraphs that were revised extensively and those added to the MS, should be checked and edited very carefully again. Major revision sometimes makes new problems. Structure of the sentence also should be re-considered. For example, the first paragraph of the discussion section contains word “However” two times. This makes the paragraph weak. Also there are redundant wordings in some places.

Discussion on the factors expansion of Ceratospyris should be described more clearly and shortly. Howe about the following ?
“Ceratospyris was not found in Canada Basin in 1950’s and 1960’s (Itaki et al. 2003) but we found it was common in upper AW in western Arctic in our sample collected in 2011. Since water temperature where this species occurred ranged from -1.6 (this study) to 10 C (Itaki et al. 2003, S & B 1987), slight increase of the temperature in the Arctic Sea (?? C, refs) during this period could not be a reason of the expansion of the range of this species . The change of North Atlantic Oscillation (atmospheric High and Low pressure cells) that controls the flow of the surface water in the North Atlantic has sustained the increase of Atlantic inflow in the Arctic Ocean (Zhang et al., 1998). This temporary increasing volumes of inflowing AW might increase the chances for more exotic radiolarians to expand their ranges into the Arctic Ocean.”
Does this mean that other Atlantic exotic radiolarians also expand the range into Arctic?

Authors are strongly suggested to re-consider the structure of the sentenses in each paragraph and to polish English, and send the revised version. Subject editor will check the final MS.

With the best, Yutaka Watanuki
2015.3.2.

Dear Dr Ikenoue,

Thanks for revision. Discussion looks much better. The revised version can be acceptable. Just I would like to suggest technical corrections. Authors are suggested to polish up English more and streamline the sentences, especially in Discussion section, maybe asking good English editing supports.

P13L10-12. ".......July-November 2011 and low during December 2011-June 2012, while that in the lower trap ...."

Yutaka Watanuki