Dear authors:
I have now received two reviewers comments. As you can see, both reviewers agreed that the manuscript present novel and relevant results on the fate of fecal pellets. However, both reviewers also agreed that there is more information required concerning the biogeochemical composition of the diatoms, such as silica content, C and N content, size of the diatoms, etc.
I thank that this information can easily provided in a revised version of the paper.
Please submit the thoroughly revised manuscript along with an accompanying letter stating point by point how you addressed the criticism and suggestion in the revised version. Also, the reviewers made a number of minor suggestions on the spelling. Please follow these suggestions as well.
Looking forward to receiving a thoroughly revised version of your interesting manuscript.
Best wishes, Gerhard Herndl

Dear authors:
I have now gone through the revised version of your manuscript. I found that the additions are adequate to address the reviewer's suggestions. Hence, I appreciate being able to inform you that the paper is now accepted for publication in Biogeosciences.
Thanks for choosing Biogeosciences as an outlet of your interesting work.
Best wishes, Gerhard Herndl