Dear Francie Peterse,
Thanks for your reply to the comments of the three reviewers and for providing the new version of ms 375. I need you to provide a response letter in which you respond to each comment/question of reviewers indicating whether a) you agree with each comment/question and where in the article you incorporated or deleted the response, b) you disagree with each comment/question and the reasons.

Your brief response does appropriately address issues such as limitation of the experimental set up, etc. even though you mention that you toned down some conclusions.

Thanks for your interest in Biogeosciences and best regards

Dr. Silvio Pantoja
Associate Editor

January 26, 2015

Dear authors,
Thanks for submitting a revised version of ms bg-2014-375. You have provided appropriate responses to most comments of the three reviewers, but questions on methodology are not properly addressed in this version: a) control -distilled water and b) soil:water ratio. Even though the issue is acknowledged and discussed in section 3.5, neither the abstract nor the conclusion mentions how both factors could affect your results.

It is necessary that you properly address both aspects to evaluate how your experimental set up mimics the environment and therefore your conclusions help to “explore … the behavior of soil brGDGTs upon entering an aquatic system”.

Sincerely yours

Silvio Pantoja
Associate Editor