Dear Dr. Wenmin Zhang,

I carefully read the reviews and the authors’ responses of manuscript bg-2017-331 titled “Impacts of the seasonal distribution of rainfall on vegetation productivity across the Sahel”.

Both reviews highlight the scientific significance and quality of this manuscript which is presented in a good quality. The authors sufficiently responded the comments, suggestions and corrections of the reviewers, especially regarding the use of CHIRPS rainfall data sets instead of RFE-2.0 data set. However, I agree with anonymous referee 2 that the relationship presented in figure 4 is a non-linear relationship. Furthermore I suggest to present the “data availability” section not following “summary and conclusion”, but in the method section.

I consider bg-2017-331 for publication in Biogeosciences after a minor revision considering the reviewers' comments and your responses and indicated changes in the revised version of bg-2017-331.

Thank you for choosing Biogeosciences for publication of this interesting study on the influence of seasonal rainfall distribution on vegetation productivity in region extremely vulnerable to climate change.

Best regards,
Jochen Schöngart

Associated Editor of Biogeosciences

Dear Dr. Zhang,

You sufficiently addressed the comments and suggestions of the associated editor and two reviewers in the revised version of bg-2017-331. However, there are still some minor technical corrections which should be considered before the manuscript can be published in Biogeosciences.

Best regards,
Jochen Schöngart
Associated Editor of Biogeosciences

Technical corrections bg-2017-331

Title: Impacts of the seasonal distribution of rainfall on vegetation productivity across the Authors: Sahel Wenmin Zhang, Martin Brandt , Xiaoye Tong , Qingjiu Tian , Rasmus Fensholt

L. 23: Should be drylands

En dashes (–) are longer than hyphens (-) and serve numerous purposes. En dashes are used to indicate, among other things, relationships (e.g. ocean–atmosphere exchange), ranges (e.g. 12–20 months), and components of a mixture (e.g. dissolved in 5:1 glycerin–water). Please use en dashes at lines 13, 14, 15, 16, 71, 102, 125, 179, 219, 223, 230, 232, 235, 236, 237, 300, 311, 347, 348, 508, 509, 510, 515, 522, 527, 532, 539, 552

L. 106/107 and 112/113: Present the number of equation (in brackets) after the equation

L. 115, 116, 231 & 233: figure instead of Fig.

L. 155: Check letter size and font (13.5˚ N, 5.0˚ W)

L. 155, 179, 508/509, 515, 522, 532, 539, 549: It is house standard not to hyphenate
modifiers containing abbreviated units (15 year not 15-year)

L. 131, 133, 164: For items other than units of time or measure, use words for cardinal numbers less than 10

L. 165: …finally we used bins of 0.5

L. 180 and L. 200: Add space between “Fig.” and “3” (three times)

L. 187: Add space between “Fig.” and “4”

L. 193-198: Add space between “Fig.” and “5” (seven times)

L. 320: Add space between “Fig.” and “7”

L. 345-346, 533 : Add spaces before and after “=”

L. 514: Add space between “Fig.” and “2”

L. 520: Add space between “Fig.” and “3”

L. 526: Add space between “Fig.” and “4”

L. 531: Add space between “Fig.” and “5”

L. 542: Add space between “Fig.” and “7”

L. 548: Add space between “Fig.” and “8”