Based on the comprehensive comments by the referees and your final response to those, I encourage you to submit a revised manuscript, which I will send out for review again.

Dear Drs. Terzic and Vilibic,

Thank you for the submission of the completely revised manuscript. The referee is satisfied with the modifications you made and I agree. Your manuscript is close to publication in Ocean Science. Please account for the minor and technical comments by the referee.

Thanking you in advance and with best wishes
Mario Hoppema

Dear Drs. Terzić and Vilibić,

Thank you for the revised version of your manuscript. There were quite some changes and modifications made after the previous decision for minor revisions. I went through the manuscript for final comments and corrections. My comments appear below.
Generally, the language used is sometimes verbose and therefore not always easily understandable. Please go through the text and see if you can ameliorate this. Because of this, my decision is minor revisions. However, the paper is close before publication in Ocean Science.

The figure captions are very long. If there is information in the figure captions that is also provided in the text, it is not necessary to repeat that in the caption. Only information that is necessary to understand the figure should be given. Please keep the captions as short as possible.

L3-4 I suggest: … Argo profiles from the Southern Adriatic Pit to quantify the vertical structure of the changes and to test for regime shifts.

L6 “which the two periods sample differently” I do not understand this. Periods cannot sample.
L6 relative to the entire Mediterranean … - add: entire

L9-10 This sentence is hard to understand; I suggest: … to about 40 %; this regime shift is only provable if vertical resolution and platform are accounted for.

L56 This sentence, especially the first part, is not clear. I think you mean and suggest: The analyses make use of three kinds of the data, …

L58 “… and needs an uncertainty estimate that allows for casts taken on the same cruise not being independent; …” This is not clear to me. Please rephrase.

L58-59 “the rate comparison with the rest of the Mediterranean (Sect. 2.4) fits trends to the same casts arranged as monthly series.” Not clear, please rephrase.

L64 change to: … and only use Argo profiles.
L92 delete: of that table (not clear what that means, and I think not necessary)

L138, 142, 143 deseasonalized, not deseasoned
L164 delete usual

L163-165 “The break year is the one at which the model fits the casts best, and every year whose fit lies within the usual 95 % likelihood margin of that best fit is reported with it, as the set of years the data cannot tell apart” This sentence is really hard to understand. Please rephrase.

L170-172 This is a very long sentence with different parts. Please split it to increase its readability
L192 delete: one above the other (this is trivial)

L193-194 “is described by two and any change in their separation can be measured” This is not clear to me. What measurement? The data show the separation or not.

L197 … at least 0.010, i.e., ten times … (add i.e. for clarity)
L199 I suggest: This is considered as one maximum, …

L207 I think you mean: Those casts date from 1972–1998; of these 88 % are from 1990–1998; for the period 2010–2025 99 % of the casts are Argo profiles.

L208-211 Please split this very long sentence for better readability
L215 Why not just “have” instead of carry?

L216 “Each maximum carries its depth, salinity, temperature and σ0” This is trivial. Why write this here again?
L216-217 “the density distinguishes a maximum displaced along its isopycnal from one made of different water” Not clear what is meant here. Please explain

L217 What is native resolution?
L222 Again, why not just “have” instead of carry?

L222-225 Very long sentence. Please split for better readability
L236 taken, not carried

L272 “Between the 1950–1999 and 2000–2025 climatologies the southern Adriatic (DJ3) is warmer and saltier …” This info is not unequivocal. Is it getting warmer and saltier within each of these climatologies, or from the first period to the second? Please clarify.

L308 dampens
L313-314 delete sentence: “Level by level it is close to one at 250–300 m and rises steadily with depth, exceeding six from 1000 m down.” Because this is exactly the same as in the previous sentence with numbers.

L381 meet (not meets)
L429 different
L462 Please do not use “report” for floats

L488 “this same split” It is not clear which split is meant. Please be more specific.
L509 “result” here is not specific. Please modify. “locates” seems to be incorrectly used here
L512-513 “already close to saturation in extent” What is meant here? Saturation of what?

L522 pathways of what? Please be more specific
L523-524 Or write: It stabilizes the upper column …
L526 carbon dioxide, not just carbon

L526-527 “Elevated salinity also constrains growth directly through osmotic stress” Does that follow from the citated work, or is this speculation?

L551 … water mass formation region …
L552 … that is, weaker heat loss (add comma after “is”, which is mandatory for correct reading)
L562 I suggest to add:… to the full Mediterranean … , or: to the entire Mediterranean

L570 having, not carrying
L573 Which mechanism?

Figure 4: at C-F please insert in parentheses behind the terms, the abbreviations as used in the figure panels
Caption Figure 6: The last sentence should be deleted: “Note that the figure is a schematic and not a data plot.” The title already says that it is a schematic.

Thank you and best wishes,
Mario Hoppema