Dominik - thanks for your comments and responses to the referee reports.

Overall, the paper was well received. The reviewers provide a number of thoughtful suggestions on how the manuscript could be improved before potential publication.

I certainly agree with the reviewer suggestions that including a thorough assessment of previous studies over Australia, and how your work advances on the well developed hydrological research that has been undertaken there, is a needed element. It would be good to see some of this explored not just in the introduction (i.e. a literature review), but also in the discussion, in reflecting on your own results. In this regard, particular attention should be paid to the comments of Renzullo.

Given the length of your experiment, it would certainly be helpful to see some insights into the spatiotemporal developments as well. It seems that a concern shared by the reviewers was the need to better detail these dynamics, both as a function of time and space (i.e. differentiated by vegetation or soil type).

Once I receive a resubmission from you with a statement of how you have incorporated these and other reviewer comments (you will need to upload this in a separate step), I will likely send it out for re-review so that the referees can determine whether they are satisfied with your revisions.

Best wishes,
Matt

Dear Dominik.

Your manuscript has been favorably reviewed by myself and two of the original referees. As such, I am pleased to report its acceptance into the HESS Special Issue. Our HESS publications team will work with you through the next steps to see this published online.

I appreciate the effort and attention to detail that you and your co-authors have made in revising this manuscript.

Best wishes,
Matt