Dear Dr. Liblik and co-authors,

Thank you for the revised submission and the response to the referee. The manuscript has improved according to the referee and to myself, but there are some few issues left that must be accounted for (see comments by referee). In addition, please find my list of final comments. If you have accounted for all comments, the manuscript will be ready for publication in Ocean Science.

Please carefully check the reference to the figures. Figure 2 is not referred to in the text. Probably where Figure 3 is referred to for the first time, this should be Figure 2. Also other references to figures may be incorrect. Please check.

Please be certain to have all geographic names used in the text are also shown on the map of figure 1.

L35-36 „determine vertical fluxes between the surface and sub-thermocline layer.” Please add what kind of vertical fluxes. Of water, particles, organic matter, etc.?

L36-37 “Moreover, the vertical structure of currents is strongly linked to pycnoclines (Suhhova et al., 2018).” This is not clear to me. Please expand and/or explain.

L46 “approximately” instead of “virtually”
L49-50 Please rearrange the references. Double parentheses are not necessary here.

L133 Please define OSTIA
L136 Insert year for the reference

L206 m-2 and delete: d
L303-304 “Thus, large scale atmospheric forcing alters the restratification.” This is not correct, I think. The large-scale forcing provides conditions that are beneficial for restratification.

L307 4. Discussion (correct numbering)
L330 phenomena (as the sentence is in plural)

L336-337 “thus, winter stratification phenomenon occurred even when most of the Gulf of Finland was not covered by ice.” Exactly this has been written some lines above, so can be deleted here.

L342 Please refer to Figure 1 here
L347 I think “accounts” should be deleted here.

L384 5. Conclusions (change numbering)
L425 I think this means anonymous, right? Please use that term.

L432-434 This reference is incomplete (no journal etc.), and with double terms. http and doi is the same. Please correct

L436-438 No journal etc., and double link
L447 Oceans not: Ocean.
L448 Oceans not: Ocean
.
L455-456 What kind of publication is this? This link is not valid. Please give more info and correct.

L461 Hydrobiologia, 554, 57–65, 2006. (change format)
L484 iden dito, change format
L488-490 Please provide more info on this publication. The link does not lead to this paper.

L516-517 Provide editor of book
L528 Page numbers missing

L573-574 Please provide more info on this reference
L603-605 Please provide more info on this reference, delete: n.d.
L618 Change date format 1 November etc.

L627 caption Figure 4: These are not profiles but sections. What is called profile should be a transect.
Figure 4: It is strange to have the color scale in one of the panels. Please place it outside.
Figure 5 idem ditto

Thanks and best wishes
Mario Hoppema

Dear Dr. Liblik and co-authors,

Thank you for submitting the revised version of your manuscript.
I am generally content with your revision and response. Your manuscript is thus accepted for publication in Ocean Science.

When submitting the final version of your manuscript, please take into account my final suggestions for technical corrections as listed below.

L323-324 … if fresher water is already present along the north coast of the gulf, …
L326-327 … dominated in November until the beginning of January …

L331-332 … to the south, thus expanding the area of shallow UML (Fig. 11c) and preconditioning the surface water for phytoplankton growth.

L332-333 Due to the instability of baroclinic jets at the density fronts, filaments formed which transport the saltier water to the north and fresher water to the south.

L338-339 “Wintertime stratification phenomenon in nearshore regions, extending 10–20 km from the coast, have been reported in several locations in the Baltic Sea” This sentence is in plural, so the term should also be in plural: phenomena
(also in some other cases in the text)

Figure 5: the color scale is still in the figure. Please place it outside.
L658 caption: Deviating coulor scale … (instead of Separate)

With best wishes
Mario Hoppema