Thank you for your submission to Biogeosciences. Your MS has received two reviews from highly qualified reviewers in this field, both of whom thought that this is a well-written manuscript describing the results of a well-designed and conducted study that yields new insights, but offered numerous substantive comments to improve the paper. Thus, I will be happy to consider a revised submission that addresses these reviewer comments.

Please clearly describe how the text was revised according to the reviewer comments when submitting your revised manuscript. Thank you for your efforts, and for your support of Biogeosciences.

Sincerely,
Mike Weintraub
Associate Editor
Biogeosciences

You will be pleased to hear that, based on your responses to the reviews and another assessment from one of the original reviewers, I have concluded that this manuscript is nearly ready for publication in Biogeosciences, pending the last minor corrections noted by the reviewer. Your efforts to improve this paper through the review process have paid off, and the current version manuscript is much improved from the original submission. Thank you for your hard work, and for your support of Biogeosciences.

Sincerely,
Mike Weintraub
Associate Editor
Biogeosciences

Thank you for these last minor edits. Your manuscript has now been accepted for publication. We appreciate your support of Biogeosciences.

Sincerely,
Mike Weintraub
Associate Editor
Biogeosciences