Dear Dr. Bourgeois:

Thank you for submtting this paper to Biogeosciences. Your paper was received with great enthousiasm by two referees and in your rebuttal you have given me the impression that you will be able to address most issues identified. I therefore anticipate that your revised version will be acceptable for publication.

In your rebuttal you indicate that Jens Terhaar will be added as co-auhor because of his contribution (residence-time calculation). This is indeed a valid reason to modify the authorship of the final to be published version. Moreover, because you communicate this in the public rebuttal, I assume that all authors agree on this.

I therefore invite you to submit the revised version.

With best regards

Jack Middelburg, Associate Editor

Dear Dr. Bourgeois:


I have read your revised version and I am happy to inform you that your paper is now accepted for publication pending technical corrections. Although your paper will not be the final word on this, it is a nice first attempt to use this type of models. There are too many arm-waving data-based extrapolation papers on this topic that repeat and cannabilize the same numbers over and over, without advancing our understanding. You have made the necessary first step in the right direction.
However, there are a few technical corrections that need your attention.
- p.2, l.9: and 80 of WHAT? Something missing here.
- P.2., l15: NEP is used here but only introduced in line 32. Please correct.
- P.3, l. 1: Did Alberto Borges and colleagues from Liege really write this and use models? Please check.
- P.3, l.4: Finally, Liu (2010) or Liu et al. (2010) correct the citation here.
- P.4, l. 31: Is the horizontal eddy viscosity really negative? I guess that it should be positive. Please check.
- P. 5, l. 15: would it not be more appropriate to cite the Aumont et al. 2015 paper where the latest model is presented?
- P.15, l. 5: delete over
- P. 17, l. 23: it is Middelburg, not Middleburg ☺.

Thanks for submitting to Biogeosciences,

Jack Middelburg, Associate Editor