Dear Author,

I refer to your manuscript bg-2018-208 submitted for publication to Biogeosciences. The referees have identified significant issues with this manuscript. The ratings are below the level of quality expected in the journal:

- scientific significance: good, good, excellent
- scientific quality: poor, fair, fair
- presentation quality: poor, fair, fair

The three referees recommended a major revision. I note that you already have a revised version. I suggest that you make sure that all referees comments are addressed satisfactorily. I also note that there are still green and red colours in some figures. As mentioned before, this must be changed (see below the comment I made on the file initially submitted). Correct "founded" in the acknowledgements.

Once this is done, please submit the revised version which will go through a second round of review.

Best regards,
Jean-Pierre Gattuso
BG Editor


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Several figures use the rainbow color palette which is strongly discouraged by the journal. Please redraw the figures with a color palette compliant with the instructions to authors (https://www.biogeosciences.net/for_authors/manuscript_preparation.html). Please find here (http://betterfigures.org/2014/11/18/end-of-the-rainbow/) a plea to help rid science of colour scales that can distort, mislead and confuse. Colour scales that are often illegible to those who are colour blind. See also: http://geog.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/EOS/. Make sure that the color palettes that you use follow the recommendations outlined in these sites and the instructions to authors. Importantly, green and red colors must not be used in the same figure.

Dear Author,
I concur with the reviewers that your manuscript has significantly improved and that your data are worthy publication. Reviewer #1 is satisfied with the revision and suggest “minor revision”. Reviewer #2 recommends another “major revision". Their reports (attached) provide suggestions to improve the manuscript. They both rate the scientific quality quite poorly:

- Scientific significance: excellent, excellent
- Scientific quality: fair, fair
- Presentation quality: good, fair

I do not think that I have gone through 3 rounds of reviews for manuscripts that I have edited for Biogeosciences but will do it for yours. Please follow the advice given and submit a revised version as well as a point-by-point reply.

Best regards,
Jean-Pierre Gattuso, BG editor

Dear Author,

Thank you for submitting a revised version of your manuscript submitted to Biogeosciences, which I am glad to accept for publication.

I look forward to seeing this paper published and thank you for considering Biogeosciences to publish these interesting results.

Best regards,
Jean-Pierre Gattuso
BG Editor