Dear Dr. Fisher:

Thank you for submitting this paper to Biogeosciences. The long-time series presented is quite unique and represents a major contribution to oceanography. I have read the comments and rebuttal and believe you can adequately resolve most issues raised and I therefore invite you to submit a revised version. Most of the comments received concern presentation or the need for addtional detail and are straitforward to deal.

With best regards,

Jack Middelburg, Associate Editor

Dear Dr. Fisher:

I have read your revision and rebuttal and I am happy to inform you that your paper is now accepted for publication in Biogeosciences. While reading I identified a few minor, technical corrections:
- l.96: replace nm with nautic miles (nm is nanometer).
-l. 209: density is expressed upto 40 permille. This is weird either write salinity to 40 or something like density was increased upto xx kg dm-3 or alike.
-l. 296: delete space before the dot.
- l. 492: indicates replace with would indicate for clarity.
Most important corrections: use the . rather than , for decimal digits (US/UK vs. continental europe) in your tables.

Once again thank you for submitting this lasting paper to Biogeosciences,

Jack Middelburg, Associate Editor