Dear Carlos:

I have read the paper and correspondence and believe that a revision based on your reply will very likely be acceptable and I therefore invite you to submit a revised version.

With best regards,

Jack Middelburg

Dear Carlos:

Thank you for submitting your Vernadsky award paper to Biogeosciences. I have read the reviews, rebuttal and revised manuscript and I am happy to inform you that your paper is now accepted for publication in Biogeosciences.
While reading the final version I identified a few minor technical corrections:
- P.3, l. 13 hypereutrophic
- P. 5, l. 15: Frankignoulle
- P. 5, l. 21: needs to be increased
- P. 5, l. 26: ..coastal habitats, as terrestrial forest do, export a significant…
One minor scientific comment: salt marshes and in particular mangroves are well known sites of carbonate dissolution, i.e. alkalinity generators. Reading your text (p. 7, l. 28-30) the reader could get the impression that much carbonate burial occurs there. As an instructive examples: many mangrove sediments lack carbonates while they are adjacent to coral reefs and seagrass sediments that are carbonate rich.

I am looking forwards seeing your paper in press and picked up by the earth system carbon cycling community.

Ciao,

Jack Middelburg, Associate Editor