In their manuscript "Identifying community assembling zones and connectivity pathways in the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic Ocean", the authors describe a Lagrangian simulation exercise aimed to assess community connectivity in the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. The manuscript is a resubmission of ms ECOG-06983, which I had evaluated negatively and about which, I am sorry to say, I am still doubtful as to its relevance for possible publication in Ecography.

As already pointed out in my previous review, the modelling framework seems to me to be overly theoretical from the biological viewpoint, because the Lagrangian particles used in the simulation exercise by the authors have no specific traits, which makes them potentially representative of a wide range of real-world organisms, but of no particular species. The particles are released throughout the year and simply have one of three possible PLDs, they are not associated with any specific habitat and therefore there is no assessment of the suitability of the target locations for survival. The oceanographic part of the work focuses instead on a specific study area and the development of a realistic description of the region's water circulation system. In the end, it seems to me that the results are therefore more relevant from an oceanographic point of view rather than from the point of view of spatial ecology, although I recognise that the authors have made the effort to place greater emphasis on the ecological implications of their results.

But I probably failed to fully grasp the relevance of the work and, if so, I sincerely apologise. I defer to the editors as to its suitability to Ecography and its audience. The text is well written, the methodological approach clearly explained and the figures well organised, so I regret that I have no further specific suggestions for improving the manuscript.