Dear Author,

Thank you for replying to the referees' comments I encourage you to submit a version revised along the lines of these replies. Please pay special attention to the comments of referee #1 to whom the revised manuscript will be sent for a second round of review.

Finally, Biogeosciences strongly promotes the full availability of the data sets reported in the papers that it publishes in order to facilitate future data comparison and compilation as well as meta-analysis. This can be achieved by uploading the data sets in an existing database and providing the link(s) in the paper. Alternatively, the data sets can be published, for free, alongside the paper as supplementary information. The ascii (or text) format is preferred for data and any format can be handled for movies, animations etc...

The above applies to your biological data as well.

Best regards,
Jean-Pierre Gattuso

Dear Author,
Thank you for submitting a revised version of your manuscript submitted to Biogeosciences, which I am glad to accept for publication but request that you consider the following points raised by referee #1:

1) In response to my review the authors changed the title, however, they did not include mention that their study deals with sediment trap samples. I still think it is worth mentioning this in the title and would like them to include this.

2) In the abstract, L11+12, I think they could be a bit more precise here. The three stages where dissolution can happen are correct, but depending on the water mass, OA could also play a role during stages 2 and 3.

Please get back to me with a reply to these two requests.

I look forward to seeing this paper published and thank you for considering Biogeosciences to publish these very interesting results.

Best regards,
Jean-Pierre Gattuso
BG Editor

Dear Author,

Thank you for submitting a revised version of your manuscript submitted to Biogeosciences, which I am glad to accept for publication.

I agree with the referee and would like to see "in a sediment trap" added to the title which would read: "Determining how biotic and abiotic variables affect the shell condition and parameters of Heliconoides inflatus pteropods from a sediment trap in the Cariaco Basin”. I leave it up to you to consider shortening it as “Biotic and abiotic variables affecting shell morphology and condition of Heliconoides inflatus pteropods from a sediment trap in the Cariaco Basin”.

I look forward to seeing this paper published and thank you for considering Biogeosciences to publish these very interesting results.

Best regards,
Jean-Pierre Gattuso
BG Editor