Thank you for your answers to the 3 reviewers that mostly covers the issues raised. It is also nice that additional information are provided as SI (air masses backwards trajectories).
However I have few additional remarks that I’d like you take into account before the paper can be accepted for publication:

- I found it unfortunate that only few papers resulting from the PEACETIME cruise are cited. I would recommend at least to add Sellegri et al. (accepted Scientific reports) that you co-authored that nicely emphasize on the importance of SML in air-sea exchange processes, this is directly link to your work during PEACETIME.

- L56, please add following references : MERMEX Group, 2011 and Pujo-Pay et al., 2011 (PUJO-PAY, Mireille, CONAN, Pascal, ORIOL, L., et al. Integrated survey of elemental stoichiometry (C, N, P) from the western to eastern Mediterranean Sea. Biogeosciences, 2011, vol. 8, no 4, p. 883-899.) (note that De Madron et al. should be MERMEX Group et al.: in the text and references)

- the answer to several remarks is relevant but is not always reflected in the text: I think it is important that your answers (and the new references discussed/proposed to support your remarks) are properly included in your manuscript. In particular, rem 3 rev#1 (preservation methodology that could impact the abundance (that is lower than usually reported in the Med Sea) ; also from rev#2 : there are some DOC data although not measured in all SML samples and it would be interesting to check the relevance of this parameter and indicate weither or not how the differences impact the east-west pattern ? also from rev#2, about the bacterial abundance decrease, it would be nice to refer to Tovar-Sanchez et al., 2020.

- L218, As no dust deposition was evidenced at ION from atmospheric studies (Desboeufs et al. in prep and Fu et al., in prep) and also because dust is often a wet deposition, I suggest to modify the sentence : "...either deposited by dust or by rain days before this research campaign in the Ionian Sea or in other areas closeby" by “... linked to wet or dry deposition that occurred before and/or during our sampling period at ION”.

- L220, please add reference to Fu et al. paper in prep : after the sentence : « This is also corroborated by air mass trajectory backtracking using the HYSPLIT model (Fig. S3) which showed that aerosols likely were of terrestrial origin » (please replace « terrestrial » by continental) and add : « this was confirmed by atmospheric measurements indicating that chemical composition of dry and wet depositions were influenced by Eastern Europe air masses (Desboeufs et al., this issue, in prep.). [Desboeufs, K., Doussin, J.-F., Giorio, C., Triquet, S., Fu, Y., Dulac, F., Garcia-Nieto, D., Chazette, P., Féron, A., Formenti, P., Gaimoz, C., Maisonneuve, F., Riffault, V., Saiz-Lopez, A., Siour, G., Zapf, P., and Guieu, C.: ProcEss studies at the Air-sEa Interface after dust deposition in the MEditerranean sea (PEAcEtIME) cruise: Atmospheric overview, Biogeosciences this special issue, in preparation.]

- - abstract: as this is important regarding the objectives of the PEACETIME project, I would add L 14 “At the stations located in the Ionian Sea, fungi – ***likely of continental origin via atmospheric deposition*** -were found in high relative abundances etc.”

I suggest that you reconsider your response for the following remark as they do not fully answer the question raised :
- rev#1 : the second suggestion : appart from the litterature review that you added, the reviewer was wondering how your data in oligotrophic system compare with previous work, this should be done in the text.

Thank you!

Dear authors,
This an interesting study and well written manuscript, however, I concur with the associate editors comments and urge you the address the issues she raised before accepting the paper for publication.
Sincerely,
Christine Klaas

Dear author,
the text and figure legends are not of sufficient quality and need to be improved. Please find my suggestions in the annotated manuscript. I am please to accept publication of your manuscript pending these minor revisions.
Sincerely,
Christine Klaas