Dear Tim Rixen,
many thanks for your discussion contribution in response to the reviews.
I think the more positively inclined of the two reviewers provides a good summary (also in view of the impressive data set that you discuss):
"This basic difficulty of comprehension and lack of messages continues throughout the
paper, to which I am not responding in full. Notwithstanding these critical comments, I
do feel that the data should be published and that a major re-write would be worth the
effort. As it stands, as a reader I was hopelessly lost and at times intensely frustrated.
By bringing out a few key messages, that the data do contain, and limiting the discus-
sion to only those aspects that relate to these, the paper could make a good contribu-
tion to understanding controls on particulate fluxes in the Indian Ocean."
Therefore: Please, go ahead with a major revision of your manuscript.
One absolutely necessary condition for making progressing with a successful revision will be to make the paper easier to read. I urge you to let the manuscript go through a critical internal review process on your side (and possibly the involvement of a skilled science writer or language-editor for streamlining).
Best wishes, Christoph Heinze

Dear Tim,
many thanks for your revised version. Among other issues, the presentation quaility of this manuscript is still poor.
Please, carry out a careful language editing and address all points of the reviewer in a new revised version. Please, let the paper pass an internal review with your co-authors in order to make sure that the next version provides a strong improvement. I look forward to your new manuscript version.
Best wishes, Christoph

Dear Dr. Rixen,
thank you very much for your revised manuscript. I find this one more streamlined and easier to read now. Your endurance and patience with this manuscript are gratefully acknowledged. I accept your manuscript for publication in Biogeosciences.
Best regards, Christoph Heinze