Reply to Reviewer 3

Abstract

presents vertically highly resolved observations in bottom sediments of the Stockholm Archipelago with the aim to quantify removal of phosphorus and nitrogen by sediment processes. The net fluxes of P and N through the sediment-water interface determines the removals of P and N (the sediment sinks). These are very important at the system level and determine together with the nutrient supplies from land-based and ocean-based sources concentrations in the water column. However, in the manuscript the estimated sediment sinks are not upscaled (i.e. horizontally integrated) to the system level which makes it impossible to verify that the removal of C1 BGD