Dear authors,

both reviewers found that this is a great manuscript on the impact of rainfall variability and rewetting on heterotrophic respiration. It reads very well and it is a great model exploration of drying and rewetting effects which was so far lacking. Congratulations!
Three very minor comments from my side:
1) make clear to consistently use heterotrophic respiration instead of soil respiration as soil respiration is generally used to comprise both auto- and heterotrophic respiration.
2) write out abbreviations in Table 2 to make it self-understandable
3) 'accumulated DOC' (L. 47): How can DOC (=dissolved organic carbon) accumulate in dry soil? Either rename it to extractable OC (this is what is usually measured), potentially leachable DOC or mobilizable OC.
Best regards Frank Hagedorn