Dear authors,

Thank you very much for your manuscript. This study discusses major research perspectives, concept understanding challenges and communication barriers for interdisciplinary connectivity research in water, land and vegetation systems. Prof Genevieve Ali and an anonymous referee provided two thoughtful reviews, highlighting the novelty and great interest of the mental model approach developed in your study for exploring connectivity understanding across disciplinary boundaries, also recommending clarifying/refining some minor elements of the paper before publication.

I appreciate your detailed and very constructive responses to the referee comments in the interactive discussion and the corresponding changes in the marked-up manuscript that is attached in your responses. Based on the reviews and your answers as well as the planned corrections/modifications of the manuscript, I think that the paper will be ready for publication after incorporating these changes. Please, proceed with the changes you have described in your responses.

Many thanks again.

Kind regards,
Mariano Moreno de las Heras
Handling Editor

Dear Authors,

Thank you very much for your efforts to adapt the paper to the comments raised by the referees. I think you have addressed their remarks and suggestions adequately. The changes in the revised version of the paper have improved your study significantly. The paper is now ready for final production.

Kind regards,
Mariano Moreno de las Heras