Dear Dr. Tignat-Perrier,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript "Microbial functional signature in the atmospheric boundary layer" to Biogeosciences. The manuscript was reviewed by 2 expert reviewers and myself and feel that it has potential for publication, and so we would like to invite you to revise the paper and resubmit for further review. My comments can be found in the annotated PDF attached.

When resubmitting the manuscript please provide a version showing track changes.

Best,
Dr. Denise M. Akob

Dear Dr. Tignat-Perrier,

Thank you for revising your manuscript per my and the reviewers comments. I am pleased to accept your manuscript for publication in Biogeosciences!

Please make the following technical corrections prior to publication:
L. 138: omit the subheading and correct to “16S and 18S rRNA” in the first sentence of the method.
L. 158: provide a reference for MGRAST and NCBI
L. 172: can you provide a reference for Diamond?
L. 183: can you provide a reference for eggNOG-Mapper? If this was already referenced no need to make a change.
L. 454: I suggest modifying the sentence to avoid the use of preliminary. It makes sense to point out that more work is needed but I feel that preliminary has a negative connotation. This change is optional.

Best,
Dr. Denise Akob