Effects of temperature and organic pollution on nutrient cycling in marine sediments

Sanz-Lázaro, C.; Valdemarsen, T.; Holmer, M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4565-2015

Articles | Volume 12, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4565-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4565-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 15

Research article

|

03 Aug 2015

Research article |

| 03 Aug 2015

Effects of temperature and organic pollution on nutrient cycling in marine sediments

C. Sanz-Lázaro, T. Valdemarsen, and M. Holmer

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Final revised paper (published on 03 Aug 2015)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 05 Jan 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C27: 'Review: “Effects of global climate change and organic pollution on nutrient cycling in marine sediments” by Sans-Làzaro et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 26 Jan 2015
- AC C320: 'Response to referee #1 commnents', Carlos Sanz-Lazaro, 26 Feb 2015
RC C29: 'Review of the manuscript 'Effects of global climate change and organic pollution on nutrient cycling in marine sediments' by C. Sanz-Lázaro et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 27 Jan 2015
- AC C324: 'Response to referee #2 commnents', Carlos Sanz-Lazaro, 26 Feb 2015
RC C45: 'Review bg-2014-572', Anonymous Referee #3, 29 Jan 2015
- AC C336: 'Response to referee #3 comments', Carlos Sanz-Lazaro, 26 Feb 2015
  - AC C329: 'Response to referee #3commnents', Carlos Sanz-Lazaro, 26 Feb 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Carlos Sanz-Lazaro on behalf of the Authors (03 Mar 2015)

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (18 Mar 2015) by Tina Treude

RR by Dirk de Beer (09 Apr 2015)

RR by Anonymous Referee #5 (19 Apr 2015)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review of:
Effects of global climate change and organic pollution on nutrient cycling in marine sediments
By Sanz-Lazaro, Valdemarsen and Holmer

I have read both the original and revised manuscripts as well as author responses to previous reviewer comments. The paper provides new evidence on the potential effects of seafloor warming on benthic N and P fluxes. The results do come out as expected from previous studies and theoretical considerations, but these findings are still valuable. While the most recent version of the paper is an improvement over the original one, I think the manuscript can benefit further revisions along the lines outlined below:

A general concern of mine is to what extent are the authors confident that the measured TCO2 originated from added labile OM? Two other mechanisms can be induced or accelerated by the imposed experimental conditions and can contribute to TCO2 release:
1- Calcite dissolution induced by decreasing pH in the sediment column. Were there any pH measurements?
2- TCO2 originating from the oxidation of old, less labile or refractory carbon pools. There are a number of studies showing that addition of labile OM could also effect the mobilization of refractory organic carbon. Generally known as priming effect, this pathway could affect the TCO2 release from the experimental substrates.
With the data at hand these processes are difficult to constrain but some discussion of these processes are needed and it may improve the interpretation of the data.
(If these processes were discussed in the companion paper – Lazaro et al 2011b – I cannot double check this since I do not have access to this paper. )

A few other points:

L18: First sentence of abstract: difficult to read, please consider to re-organize
L48: This is optional but I would prefer to read “oxidation” instead of mineralization.
L50: No need for ‘mainly’. In the coastal sediments, all OM is microbially oxidized.
L53: This sentence is confusing. Do the authors imply that iron is reduced during P adsorption (the use of ferric and then ferrous)? Or do they mean that adsorption to Fe minerals is one P sequestration pathway and the formation of Fe(II)-P minerals is another one?
L59: I suggest the replacement of ‘reduced’ with ‘reducing’
L63: This sentence is problematic as NO3, NO2 and N2 does not exit the biological cycle.
L99: I think in this section a brief recap of the methods should still be given.
L324: I would replace “pools” with “forms”

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RR by Anonymous Referee #6 (10 May 2015)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (19 May 2015) by Tina Treude

AR by Carlos Sanz-Lazaro on behalf of the Authors (17 Jun 2015)

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (02 Jul 2015) by Tina Treude

RR by Mustafa Yücel (03 Jul 2015)

RR by Anonymous Referee #4 (07 Jul 2015)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (07 Jul 2015) by Tina Treude

AR by Carlos Sanz-Lazaro on behalf of the Authors (13 Jul 2015)

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (15 Jul 2015) by Tina Treude

AR by Carlos Sanz-Lazaro on behalf of the Authors (16 Jul 2015) Author's response Manuscript