Integrated Studies of Banana on Remote Sensing, Biogeography, and Biodiversity: An Indonesian Perspective

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper reviewed technologies regarding remote sensing, GIS, satellite images in banana research fields, giving the applications of Indonesia perspective. The paper summarized these integrated methods, which would contribute to the related banana researchers. I think the paper can be considered to be published after minor revsions. Here are some comments or suggestions:

1: there some lots of biological descriptions on banana are not right or not inaccurate. For example, Line 143-146, bananas actually originated from Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. And, the flowering trees can be woody plants and also can be herbaceous plants. Please re-write this part, and also please check the text thoroughly.

2: There are some grammatical errors. Line 32 'characteristic'  needs to changed to 'characteristics', and what's the meaning or refering of "It is possible to gain."

3: Line 488, Musa acuminata should be italic，and check all the scientific names of the text.

4: If possible, the authors can give a short overview on the advantages and disadvantages on the technologies metioned in the paper in the last prat of ''9. Future research".

Author Response

1. There some lots of biological descriptions on banana are not right or not inaccurate. For example, Line 143-146, bananas actually originated from Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. And, the flowering trees can be woody plants and also can be herbaceous plants. Please re-write this part, and also please check the text thoroughly.

 

Response: The paragraph containing this information have been replaced by

 

Researching bananas is possible to focus on two major streams. The first one explores the banana herbs and focuses on their fruits. The banana was originated from South-East Asia and western region of Pacific. It is thought that bananas were domesticated since 7,000 years ago in South-East Asia [1]. It is explained more by [2] that several countries in this region are the origin places of bananas and transformed into the center of the biodiversity of bananas. One of the banana section mostly found in Eastern Indonesia and Pacific region, namely the Australimusa that spreads in the Philippines, Moluccas and Papua and New Guinea, are the tallest banana herbs and their biggest fruits (Fe’i Banana). Besides that, Calimusa has the smallest fruits and banana herbs that spread in the West of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Both belong to the groups named Eumusa-Rhodoclamps [3].

 

And

 

The terminology of banana is always interchangeable with banana herbs. In this case, it might be related to the name of a fruit, called the banana. Some of them are allowed to con-sume directly, which also named banana. Some others are required to cook, known as plan-tain. The ancestor of these two groups came from the Eumusa, the major section of banana [4]. Most of the edible banana is came from the hybridization of the Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, which produced diploid genome bananas (such as AA and AB), and are also pos-sible to produce triploid genome bananas (AAA, AAB, and ABB) [5,6]. Currently, edible banana production has rapidly grown, reaching the highest global production of bananas at about 22.2 million tonnes in 2020, a growth of 1.7 per cent compared to 2019. There is a high supply growth in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia, three of the five leading exporters [7].

 

“Banana is a herbaceous plant equipped with a pseudostem and does not have a woody tissue. This plant is a monocot and originating from the tropics of Indo-Malesia, Asia, and Australia. In general, a banana herb have a stem-like structure called suckers. After being harvested and cut down, this part will replace the entire herb life. In short, the suckers is the part of the banana herb used to create a new herb. Banana herbs also have many leaves that grow overlapped the apparent trunk of their pseudostems. A mature herb has seven to ten leaves and can stretch to more than 3 meters and form a canopy over 6 meters in diameter (Figure 2).” 

 

2. There are some grammatical errors. Line 32 'characteristic' needs to changed to 'characteristics', and what's the meaning or refering of "It is possible to gain."

Response: The word 'characteristic'  has been changed to 'characteristics'

 

The sentence “It is possible to gain” is part of this sentence “Similar techniques may be applied to explore and analyze the characteristic of the fruit. It is possible to gain” have been replaced by “Furthermore, plant canopy, health and plant disease, and herbs water content analyzed through satellite images and aerial photos of drones gave advantages to describe bananas distribution in many places in Indonesia, from the local to regional. Similar techniques may be applied to explore and analyze the characteristic of the fruit.

 

 

 

3. Line 488, Musa acuminata should be italic，and check all the scientific names of the text.

Response: Musa acuminata has been replaced by M. Acuminata as well Musa trogloditarum to Musa troglodytarum

 

4. If possible, the authors can give a short overview on the advantages and disadvantages on the technologies metioned in the paper in the last prat of ''9. Future research".

Response: The explanation of “future research has added.

 

The studies regarding banana ripening by using transcriptomics have been published as transcriptome dataset of chitosan-treated Musa acuminata cv. Cavendish (AAA group) to study RNA profile during delayed ripening [52] and ethylene-treated Musa balbisiana cv. Pisang Klutuk Wulung (BB group) to study RNA profile of this late ripening banana [53]. For metabolomics study, metabolites profile of chitosan and low temperature-treated banana has also been identified to study the delay of ripening mechanism on M. acuminata cv. Cavendish fruit [54]. The study on comparative genomics also has been conducted to reveal the differences of some ripening-related genes between M. acuminata and M. balbisiana, namely pectin methylesterase (PME) and pectin methylesterase inhibitor (PMEI) which take a responsible in cell wall remodeling [55], and beta-amylase (BAM) which has a role in carbohydrate metabolism [56]. These findings could become an initial study to reveal ripening mechanism on banana fruit and could be integrated to spectral reflectance of banana fruit, since omics study give a deep insight on this mechanism. Along with this, further studies may have to focus on building the relationship between the spectral reflectance of banana to the genome, transcriptome, and metabolome characteristics during ripening stages and the ripening analysis using artificial intelligence (AI). The future perspective of the integration of these methods results in advanced studies on a banana since it can contribute to other scientific fields, such as industries, food technology and post-harvest, to eco-tourism.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Please find in the following my comments about the review of a manuscript under the title (Integrated Studies of Banana on Remote sensing, Biogeography, and Biodiversity: Indonesia Perspective):

 

This study reviews a study on Banana in Indonesia's perspective, which started from obtaining information related to firmness, colour change of peel, water content, and the sugar content corresponding to Brix and Starch values.

Few points in the study need to be added and changed to adhere to the journal’s standards.

The main question addressed by the research

 

• This study focused on studying Banana in Indonesia's perspective with finding the relation be-25 tween the remote sensing (RS) technologies of all these biophysical characteristics to genomics, tran-26 scriptomic, and metabolomics.

 

Originality and relevance

 

• The study is interesting for reading and relevant in the field as it discusses information related to firmness, colour change of peel, water content, and the sugar content corresponding to Brix and Starch values.
• The study has high scientific quality.
• The study is relevant to the scope of this journal.
• The manuscript is clear, relevant for the field and presented in a well-structured manner

Comments:

• Add a list of abbreviation
• Add a list of contents
• Use the uniform style as the guidelines of the journal. Some references were mentioned as numbers and others in full in the text (e.g (Ismail et al., 2014)- line 319.

Author Response

1. Add a list of abbreviation

No	Explanation	Abbreviation
1	Beta-amylase	BAM
2	Bunchy top disease	BBTD
3	Digital surface model	DSM
4	Digital terrain model	DTM
5	Geographic information systems	GIS
6	Green normalized difference water index	GNDWI
7	Ground surface distance	GSD
8	Implemented object image analysis	OBIA
9	Leaf area index	LAI
10	Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer	MODIS
11	Modified chlorophyll absorption in reflectance index	MCARI
12	Near-infrared	NIR
13	Normalized difference infrared index	NDII
14	Normalized difference vegetation index	NDVI
15	Normalized difference water index	NDWI
16	Pectin methylesterase	PME
17	Pectin methylesterase inhibitor	PMEI
18	Red, green, and blue	RGB
19	Regression water content	RWC
20	Remote sensing	RS
21	Surface energy balance algorithm for land	SEBAL
22	Thermal infrared sensors	TIRS
23	Unmanned aerial vehicle	UAV
24	Vegetation ratio index	VRI
25	Water content index	WCI
26	Xanthomonas wilt of banana	BXW

 

2. Add a list of contents
3. Introduction
4. Challenge in banana herbs detection, identification and plants classification
5. Considering the aerial photograph to observe individual herbs of banana
6. Observing the banana herbs, a perspective of biogeography and biodiversity
7. The journey to discover the Musa troglodytarum
8. The use of bananas for community developments and the role of ethnography and domestication for improving banana biodiversity.
9. Observing the banana fruits through spectral reflectance
10. Observing the banana herbs diseases through spectral reflectance
11. Future research

 

These list of contents above have been replace into the following classification.

 

1. Introduction

1.1. Challenge in banana herbs detection, identification and plants classification

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Considering the aerial photograph to observe individual herbs of banana

2.2. Observing the banana herbs, a perspective of biogeography and biodiversity

2.3. The journey to discover the Musa troglodytarum

2.4. The use of bananas for community developments and the role of ethnography and domestication for improving banana biodiversity.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Observing the banana fruits through spectral reflectance

3.2. Observing the banana herbs diseases through spectral reflectance

3.3. Future research

4. Conlusions

 

3. Use the uniform style as the guidelines of the journal. Some references were mentioned as numbers and others in full in the text (e.g (Ismail et al., 2014)- line 319.

This citation style has been corrected and replaced by “[35] and correspond by “Ismail, A.; Rachmadi, M.; Bana, N. Eksplorasi jenis-jenis pisang plantain lokal asal desa Sukaharja dan desa Sukamulih Tasikmalaya, Jawa barat sebagai sumber bibit unggul. J. Apl. Ipteks untuk Masy. 2014, 3, 92–97.”

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The study of banana is of great practical importance for the population of many countries of the world. And a lot of experience has been accumulated in this direction. The manuscript is devoted to the review of scientific publications on the study of banana in Indonesia.

The authors were able to find very few articles in the scientific literature. And their review shows only the poorly developed topic in the country.

The results presented in the article (Figures 1 and 3, comparison of Figures 4 and 5) raise many questions.

The purpose of the article remains unclear. Its conclusions are not related to the content. The manuscript looks more like a popular science article than a scientific work.

There is no discussion of the publications in the article. Only their results are repeated.

As presented, the article is unlikely to be useful for scientific researchers.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

1. The study of banana is of great practical importance for the population of many countries of the world. And a lot of experience has been accumulated in this direction. The manuscript is devoted to the review of scientific publications on the study of banana in Indonesia.
2. The authors were able to find very few articles in the scientific literature. And their review shows only the poorly developed topic in the country.

 

Response: Additional literatures have been added to enhance the depth of analysis and review of the manuscript

3. The results presented in the article (Figures 1 and 3, comparison of Figures 4 and 5) raise many questions.

Response: The figures 1a-1d explained the capability of satellite imageries which have different size of spatial resolution derived from MODIS at 250 m x 250 m (a), Sentinel-2 data with three pixel size at about 10 m x 10 m, 20 m x 20 m, and 60m x 60m, (b-d). The figure 1g visualize the same areas of banana plantation at 30m x30 m. Better visualization provided by using an aerial photograph (h), the Google Earth and google street view (e and f) which are able to shows near real time condition of banana plantation. Similar charactestic may be offered by a high resolution of SPOT-5, and able to enhance the capability to observe and differentiate the quality of individual or group of banana herb in plantation. (i1-i4).

 

For the Figures 4 and 5, the additional explanation have been added are as follow

 

Both maps above illustrated the geographical variation of suitability level of banana cultivation produced through the analysis of the GIS. The same method was applied and similar data have been used at this analysis stage resulting in two different results. There is a least suitable area improved to moderate and most suitable areas. The critical point of this lesson is considering the coverage area as the unit analysis is necessary, before conducting the suitability analysis. In smaller areas as villages, limiting the area may help to improve the suitability level for banana cultivation.

 

4. The purpose of the article remains unclear. Its conclusions are not related to the content. The manuscript looks more like a popular science article than a scientific work.

 

Response: The purpose of this article was to study the banana from Indonesia's perspective, which started from obtaining information related to firmness, color change of peel, water content, and the sugar content corresponding to Brix and Starch values. These expand into the opportunities to find the relation between the remote sensing (RS) technologies of all these biophysical characteristics to genomics, transcriptomic, and metabolomics. Besides that, geospatial science such as geographic information systems (GIS) may help visualize biogeographical factors that influence determining the land suitability analysis for growing the bananas. Furthermore, plant canopy, health and plant disease, and herbs water content analyzed through satellite images and aerial photos of drones gave advantages to describe bananas distribution in many places in Indonesia, from the local to regional. All of these, have been provided in the manuscript.

 

5. There is no discussion of the publications in the article. Only their results are repeated.
6. As presented, the article is unlikely to be useful for scientific researchers.

 

Response: The manuscript has an integrated discussion written along with the results. It did not write separately.