Habitat Suitability of Fig (Ficus carica L.) in Mexico under Current and Future Climates

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Manuscript "Spatial modeling of Ficus carica L. habitat suitability under current climate and climate change scenarios" is very interesting.

General comments:

Authors determined areas of fig (Ficus carica L.) crop habitat suitability under current climate conditions and climate change scenarios for the 2050 and 2070 horizons with the HADGEM2-ES and MPI-ESM-LR models for the RCP 2.6 and 8.5 scenarios.

The results of the present study are of great importance because they represent an advance in the study of fig cultivation in our country and, at the same time, serve as a guide to take advantage of the areas where this crop has potential for its current and future production.

The number of 644 figs is very impressive.


Detailed comments:

Calibration and modelig are perfect.


My suggestion:

Lines 107-108: results not MM?
Line 151: 'x' symbol not letter.
Line 168: "S.D."?


Paper needs minor revision.

Author Response

REVIEWER 1:

• Lines 107-108: results not MM?
• Line 151: 'x' symbol not letter.
• Line 168: "S.D."?

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a nice use of niche models and global climate models to infer zones that will be favourable for a crop plant in the future.

I have three major concerns about the paper. First, the data used to establish favourable conditions is exclusively focused on Mexico, while figs are cultivated worldwide. There is certainly room to improve the quality of predictions by exploring further data. The geographic conditions in Mexico are much different from many locations of fig cultivation with its location in the tropics.

My second concern is the total lack of details on what type of cultivation is involved. Figs can be cultivated as a pollinated crop by tending caprifig trees that host the pollinator or as a parthenocapric crop, it can be cultivated for fresh fruit production with one or two yearly crops orit can be cultivated for drying. The plantations can be irrigated or not.

I assume, without any real knowledge that the climate in Mexico does not allow the development of the pollinating Blastophaga psenes, and I assume that the plantations are not or only marginally irrigated, but I don’t know.

My third concern is the almost total lack of references to work on figs in other parts of the world.

Author Response

REVIEWER 2:

• I have three major concerns about the paper. First, the data used to establish favourable conditions is exclusively focused on Mexico, while figs are cultivated worldwide. There is certainly room to improve the quality of predictions by exploring further data. The geographic conditions in Mexico are much different from many locations of fig cultivation with its location in the tropics.

 

• My second concern is the total lack of details on what type of cultivation is involved. Figs can be cultivated as a pollinated crop by tending caprifig trees that host the pollinator or as a parthenocapric crop, it can be cultivated for fresh fruit production with one or two yearly crops orit can be cultivated for drying. The plantations can be irrigated or not.

 

• I assume, without any real knowledge that the climate in Mexico does not allow the development of the pollinating Blastophaga psenes, and I assume that the plantations are not or only marginally irrigated, but I don’t know.

 

• My third concern is the almost total lack of references to work on figs in other parts of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript ‘Spatial Modeling of Ficus carica L. Habitat Suitability Under Current Climate and Climate Change Scenarios’ deals with the changes in habitat suitability of Fig in Mexico under current and future climatic conditions. The study is described well. However, more work is required to bring the manuscript in publishable form.

 

The title must be revised as Habitat Suitability of Fig (Ficus carica L.) in Mexico under Current and Future Climates

The abstract must be refined. The information on model used, input predictors, needs to model the habitat suitability must be added. The fig appears suddenly in the manuscript. The first sentence of the abstract stresses alternative crops, while fig is not connected with alternative crops.

 

The problem statement is not adequately addressed in the manuscript. The possible issue to model the current and future habitat is to identify the optimum areas. This aspect should be included in the introduction section.

 

Please add the model information in introduction section and provide the reasons to choose the model included in the study. Why MAXENT was used?

 

The habitat classification should be changed to optimum, suitable, moderately suitable and unsuitable in Fig. 2 and same terminology must be used in the text

 

The suitable area presented in Table 2 is based on which class according to Fig. 2?

 

The conclusion is general. Please give information on the optimum areas which would not be impacted by climate change and direct the new plantations should be established on these areas. Also comment on the recent areas where the species is cultivated.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

REVIEWER 3:

• The title must be revised as Habitat Suitability of Fig (Ficus carica L.) in Mexico under Current and Future Climates

 

• The abstract must be refined. The information on model used, input predictors, needs to model the habitat suitability must be added. The fig appears suddenly in the manuscript. The first sentence of the abstract stresses alternative crops, while fig is not connected with alternative crops.

 

• The problem statement is not adequately addressed in the manuscript. The possible issue to model the current and future habitat is to identify the optimum areas. This aspect should be included in the introduction

 

• Please add the model information in introduction section and provide the reasons to choose the model included in the Why MAXENT was used?

 

• The habitat classification should be changed to optimum, suitable, moderately suitable and unsuitable in Fig. 2 and same terminology must be used in the text

 

• The suitable area presented in Table 2 is based on which class according to Fig. 2?

 

• The conclusion is general. Please give information on the optimum areas which would not be impacted by climate change and direct the new plantations should be established on these areas. Also comment on the recent areas where the species is cultivated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Spatial modeling of Ficus carica L. habitat suitability under current climate and climate change scenarios:

·        Add/Replace the name of the study area with the Keywords.

·        Pages 35-38, cite also this useful paper to improve the literature and to show the importance of your work:

Calibration of mass transfer-based models to predict reference crop evapotranspiration

·        Discuss the most important reasons for the variations of the percentage change in fig crop area under different climatic scenarios.

·        In the Tables, highlight values that are more important and discuss them for better understanding readers.

·        How can expand the results to other regions with similar/different climates?

·        The quality of the language needs to be improved for grammatical style and word use.

Author Response

REVIEWER 4.

• Add/Replace the name of the study area with the Keywords.

 

• Pages 35-38, cite also this useful paper to improve the literature and to show the importance of your work:

 

• Calibration of mass transfer-based models to predict reference crop evapotranspiration

 

• Discuss the most important reasons for the variations of the percentage change in fig crop area under different climatic scenarios.

 

• In the Tables, highlight values that are more important and discuss them for better understanding readers.

 

• How can expand the results to other regions with similar/different climates?

 

• The quality of the language needs to be improved for grammatical style and word use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I still don’t the authors are speaking only about parthenocarpic crops, or also about pollinated crops, I don’t know if the pollinator manages its year round cycle in the Mexico climate, I don’t know if there is enough of a winter to get a morphologically distinctive breba crop (larger more elongate figs, less sweet, with a thicker wall), hence I miss the basic information on what is actually the crop(s) that is cultivated in Mexico. In Turkey you would have the 3 kinds of crops  (pollinated dry, unpollinated first crop, unpollinated second crop) with different constraints on production.
Further, there is still no reference to the climatic situations under which the fig is cultivated in other parts of the world. The added references on studies on figs do not cover the questions I am asking and convey the image that the authors have no idea about fig cultivation and should obtain help from someone who know about fig cultivation and the litterature surrounding fig cultivation. 

Author Response

Dear renviewer, we appreciete your valuable contributión, her our answer:

Lines 71-78 it is mentioned that figs produced in Mexico are parthenocarpic, and the most common fig varieties in the country are also mentioned. It also discusses the temperatures managed in summer and winter.

Lines 80-85 two articles on figs and climate change are mentioned, since there is still not much literature on climate change and this crop.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx