Dear Authors,

Congratulations to write a nice paper in connection to Mn/Ca as a proxies. During discussions among authors and reviewers, most of problems have been solved.

I have one comment in terms of depth habitats of benthic foraminifera. Everybody are aware of sampling depth of organisms, and call them as shallow infernal intermediate infernal or deep infernal species. But, actually, we should know the calcification depth of organisms, because foraminifera precipitate their tests according to the chemical composition of ambient waters at calcification site. As far as we have observed, most of benthic foraminifers precipitate their tests inside of cyst. Cysts locate at shallow, intermediate and deep in sediment. In particular, interstitial waters at deep in sediment are disoxic and where Mn ion easily soluble in interstitial water. This kind of changes in chemical environments in sediment may be critical for discussing about Mn concentration in calcite our aragonite.
I feel that Uvigerina Mediterranea is distributed in sediment a bit deeper than that of U. peregrine. If this is equivanlent to calcification depth, it is no problem to discuss. But, if both species show similar calcification depth each other, discussion is a little bit nonsense. Melons barleanus is certainly deeper than Uvigerina. They should have deeper calcification depth in comparison to Uvigerina. If you have any evidences, please discuss Mn/Ca from calcification depth point of view.

Best wishes,

Hiroshi

Dear Dr. Gert-Jan Reichart and co authors,

I have carefully checked your revised manuscript and have recognized that you have corrected properly according to reviewers suggestions and comments.
I am pleased to inform you that your revised manuscript has enough matured and now ready for publication.

Congratulations.

Hiroshi Kitasato