Although, I was a bit hesitant to continue the discussion, I appreciate the response of the authors. In particular the error propagation is a nice addittion and helps in advising the simplest, but yet correct method for calculating SOC stocks. I fully agree with the last part of the response concerning the difficulties in collecting a large enough volumetric sample in stony soils. I am almost sure that most authors have not collected large enough samples for an accurate estimate of the bulk density and stone content. As the authors suggest a full uncertainty analysis would be interesting, but this would be the topic of a new paper.

The comment is concise and precise. I like the error propagation approach.

Thank you for this contribution and the thorough revisions/comments, it is interesting to see a lively debate on an important topic. We can now accept your comment for publication.

K Van Oost