Answer to Review 1

Abstract

Thank you for pointing that out. In deed it does not add much valuable information. We deleted this part except for the section about density control on the spatial distribution because it is closely related to salinities. Reviewer 1: L142: Specify here that the study of Branson et al (2015) is on foraminifera Response: L139: We added a clarification Reviewer 1: L151: How this "0.18 mmol/mol" is calculated? Or is it measured? Response: L147 Thank you for that comment, we agree a clarification was needed. This is calculated by using the profiled samples were the COC is recognizable. This value is just the difference between the means of the samples including COC measurements and the means of the samples not including the COC measurements. Reviewer 1: L172: Why the measured Sr/Ca ratio is clearly higher than the admitted ratio? Response: There could be many explanations for this error. One could be heterogeneities in the JcP-1 standard powder (Runnalls and Coleman, 2003). However, these deviations are accounted for and corrected during processing of the data. Reviewer 1: L174: Why do you mean by "accuracy amounts"? How was it calculated? Response: It is the deviation between the measured JCp-1 values and the true values in percent. We thought it is a convenient way to show the quality of measurements. We removed it nonetheless to avoid confusion. Reviewer 1: L189: Please define 'COC-like' Response: L185: We added a definition in the manuscript "In the COC and COC-like structures (structures that geochemically correspond to COC but morphologically to fibrous deposits)" Reviewer 1: L190: Is there any relation between the increase and the species? C2 BGD Interactive comment Printer-friendly version Discussion paper Response: We thank the reviewer for this very interesting comment, which should be targeted in future studies. However, here we cannot comment on this because the profiled samples all derive from Lophelia pertusa. However, it seems unlikely that great differences between different species exist given that the main controlling factor appears to be the increased growth rate in the COC's which most likely similar in different species. The main reason for the different increase in this study is probably sample mixing between COC material and fibrous material with different percentages.