Thank you for your submission to Biogeosciences. We received three reviews from highly qualified researchers in this field. All agree that this MS addresses a topic of interest to Biogeosciences readers, but all were highly critical and requested more details, clarifications, corrections, and edits, and offered suggestions for improvement. I am willing to consider a revised submission that substantively addresses these reviewer comments. Should you decide to submit a revised manuscript, please note that I cannot guarantee a positive decision. The final decision will depend on further evaluation by external reviewers, who must be satisfied that the concerns on the original submission were addressed.

Based on the authors' responses to the reviewer comments in the MS discussion, it sounds as if the proposed revisions have the potential to address the concerns raised if care is taken in providing the requested details, clarifications, corrections, and edits. While some of the details requested may also be in previous papers, enough relevant information must be provided in this MS so that readers may understand all details of this model and analyses without being forced to get them from another paper.

Thus, I invite you to submit a revised version of your MS that comprehensively addresses these reviewer comments. Please pay particular attention to addressing the reviewers' comments and be sure that the clarifications provided in the response to reviewers are also incorporated into the manuscript text, and that enough information is provided to readers so that this paper is fully comprehensible on its own. Finally, please clearly describe how the text was revised according to the reviewer comments when submitting your revised manuscript.

Thank you for these edits, and for your support of Biogeosciences.

Sincerely,

Michael N. Weintraub
Associate Editor
Biogeosciences

Thank you for your revised submission to Biogeosciences. Your revised MS has received reviews from two expert reviewers who are highly qualified in this field. Both reviewers agree that the original criticisms have been substantively addressed and that this MS is now nearly ready for publication. They also offered some additional suggestions for improving the manuscript, which I would be grateful if you would incorporate prior to publication.

Please clearly document how the text was revised according to these comments when submitting your revised manuscript. Your efforts to improve this paper are appreciated. Thank you for your hard work, and for your support of Biogeosciences.

Sincerely,

Mike Weintraub
Associate Editor
Biogeosciences

You will be pleased to hear that based on your thorough responses to the reviews, I have concluded that this manuscript is now ready for publication in Biogeosciences. Your efforts to improve this paper are appreciated. Thank you for your hard work, and for your support of Biogeosciences.

Sincerely,
Mike Weintraub
Associate Editor
Biogeosciences