The new academic year is soon approaching, a sign of new beginnings. Later in the newsletter, you will read about the new projects funded by grants from the Israel Science Foundation and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. Congratulations to the winners, and I feel certain that those who did not win will improve their research proposals and resubmit.
I am pleased to note that we have recruited a new faculty member who will begin his work in early October. Dr. Max Kolton comes to us after a postdoctoral position at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Max studies plant-bacteria interaction and environmental microbiology. I wish Max great success and hope for his speedy integration into the Sede Boqer family.
We currently have calls for two research positions: one in remote sensing and the other in aquaculture biotechnology. We look forward to starting the candidate selection process soon. The recruitment of new researchers in these two topics will strengthen the institute, particularly its uniqueness. We have undertaken the process of establishing a vision and mission for the institute, and in early October, the institute's researchers will attend a two-day seminar aimed at formulating further directions for the institute's groundbreaking research and teaching in arid agriculture and biotechnology.
About two months ago, it was announced that a new Center for Food Security in the Desert would be established at the university. I am happy to announce that Prof. Shimon Rachmilevitch has been appointed the center's first director. I assume that the center will start operating soon, and its activities will improve research and teaching in this important field. One of the center’s main goals is to share Israeli food security knowledge and technologies to feed a hungry world. In my opinion, the institute's researchers have a great deal of knowledge on these issues, and I look forward to the collaboration between the new center and our institute.
Covid-19 is still present around the world, and you are asked to do your best to limit the spread of this terrible disease. Please obey the instructions, even though it is very difficult and sometimes stressful. I no longer have any doubt that Covid-19 and its variants will be with us for a long time to come, and we must learn to live alongside this virus.
Shana Tova to all of you!
Naftali
Meet the technician
Dominic Standing
My name is Dominic Standing. I was born in England and spent my childhood in the county of Norfolk, developing a passion for birds that I still hold today. I spent my early 20s in London before packing a rucksack and heading for Southeast Asia. Several months later, I flew to Australia and ended up living in Sydney with half a dozen Israelis. It was through them that I met Yifat, my future wife. We left Australia for Japan, stopping in the UK so that I could complete a TEFL course. What should have been one year in Japan turned into four with time spent in Tokyo, Sendai, Kofu, and finally Sapporo in the northern island of Hokkaido. We returned to the UK moving to Scotland and enrolling at the University of Aberdeen where I studied Tropical Environmental Science, and Yifat studied International Relations and Management. After my first degree, I immediately started my PhD studies (the UK is different from many other countries in that a First Class Honours degree allows one to progress to PhD studies without having to complete a master’s degree) in Plant Physiology. This led to three post-doctoral positions working on rhizosphere dynamics.
We’d been in Aberdeen for nearly 20 years, and despite annual visits to Israel, Yifat began feeling the need to be closer to her family. So, in 2011, Yifat, our two children, and I packed up and moved here. We settled in a small kibbutz in the NW
Negev, and what could have been a difficult move was softened by the warmth and generosity of our new neighbours. As a birder, moving here was a fortunate choice. Israel is on a major migratory flyway with an estimated 500 million birds passing
through each spring and autumn. The area where we live is where I do most of my birding, and I’ve managed to see well over 200 species including a good number of rarities (Pin-tailed and Great Snipe, Little Bunting, Bateleur, Steppe Grey Shrike,
White-tailed Lapwing, and the hugely impressive White-tailed Eagle, for example). Like most birders, I now photograph many of the birds I see (https://www.flickr.com/photos/birderdom/).
I started a post-doctoral position jointly supervised by Gilat ARO and BGU here at the Sede Boqer Campus. After that finished, I continued working here as a lab technician. Currently, I manage the labs of Prof. Moshe Sagi and Dr. Gilboa Arye. Currently, with Prof. Sagi, I am working on a project in collaboration with European and Indian partners (https://www.india-h2o.eu/) to develop a halophyte crop—Salicornia—using the reject water from desalination plants on a local scale. This is a hugely relevant project in an area that suffers from saline soils and groundwater. As a result of the saline environment, many Gujurati villages can only raise one post-monsoon crop a year and have access to potable water once or twice a week. The project aims to provide cheap potable water with the added benefit of introducing a highly nutritious and potentially valuable crop. In Dr. Arye’s lab, I help students with various analytical instruments including TOC, AA, and spectrophotometry, and with specialist instruments to measure surface and interfacial properties (OCA and DCAT).
One of the most satisfying parts of my job is seeing students develop their research skills over their time here. The campus encourages collegiality, and I feel sure that the time the students spend here gives them the right tools to be successful in whatever they choose to do in their future careers.
Presidential visit: The presidents of Germany and Israel visited the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
The President of Germany, Frank Walter Steinmeier, visited the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) along with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Friday, July 2, 2021. The two presidents were received by Professor Daniel Chamovitz, President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Professor Noam Weisbrod, Director of the Blaustein Institutes. They were given a tour of the Sede Boqer Campus.
The presidents were briefed by Prof. Weisbrod on numerous studies that BIDR researchers are conducting in desertification (the process by which fertile land becomes barren), water scarcity, desert agriculture, renewable energy, ecosystem dynamics, dryland sustainability, and climate change.
They also met with several researchers (Prof. Arnon, Prof. Visoly-Fischer, and Prof. Fait) and graduate students from Germany, Israel, and Gaza, who explained the energy conversion and water purification systems that could lead to more sustainable living, particularly in arid lands. After concluding their tour of the different laboratories, Presidents Rivlin and Steinmeier tasted wine made in an experimental vineyard located at the BIDR. They learned about the connections between climate change and the quality of the wine. They were told of how Israel has become a model for other countries suffering from climate change and its impact on food security.
The 31st Prof. Michael Even-Ari Symposium: Toward sustainable human-nature interactions in deserts
On June 23, we gathered, in-person (!), for the 31st Prof. Michael Evenari Symposium, which this year focused on the topic “Toward sustainable human-nature interactions in deserts”, and was specifically dedicated to presenting research conducted in the BIDR’s two experimental runoff farms: Mashash and Avdat.
After short greetings from Prof. Noam Weisbrod, the BIDR Director, and from Prof. Naftali Lazarovitch, the FAAB Director, Prof. (Emeritus) Yitzchak Gutterman shared some memories from the long period he worked with Prof. Evenari, first as his PhD student and later as a close colleague.
Then we heard about the history of the establishment of the farms and their development from Prof. (Emeritus) Pedro Berliner, the successor of Prof. Evenari and a former director of the experimental runoff farms.
The rest of the day was dedicated to presentations on the variety of research projects undertaken at the two farms. Dror Hawlena (HUJI) presented his work on macro-detritivores and how they assist in resolving the dryland decomposition conundrum. Dilia Kool (BGU) made a connection between the Namib and the Negev Deserts and showed us how there is actually water where there is no water. Ilya Gelfand (BGU) described the effect of nutrient addition on the soil respiration of bare desert soils. Shayli Dor-Haim (BGU) introduced the human aspect and described the effect of human-made manipulation of the environment on ecosystem development in the case of an ancient agro-terrace system in the Negev Desert.
Hezi Yizhaq continued this line and presented a model of terraced riverbeds as novel ecosystems. Nathan Levi (ARO & BGU) discussed the effects of changing land-use on soil quality in drylands using reflectance spectroscopy. And lastly, Pedro Berliner (BGU) closed the discussion by describing the effect of soil type and crust presence on non-rainfall water inputs.
The day concluded with a light lunch and interesting informal discussions, reminding us all how joyful it is to meet and interact.
Announcements
Congratulations to Prof. Nurit Agam, the new Director of the BCSC
Prof. Nurit Agam has been confirmed as the new Director of the BCSC, starting August 1, 2021.
The FAAB representatives are Prof. Moshe Sagi and Prof. Dina Ziberg.
Congratulations to Prof. Aaron Fait for achieving a record of 100 scientific manuscripts!
The below word cloud represents Prof. Aaron Fait’s Google Scholar record.
It is evident from his word cloud that the words: plant, seed, metabolic, physiology, and grapevine are very significant.
Now is the time to start on the next 100 manuscripts.
BGU Establishes the Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Food Security in the Desert
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev established the Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Food Security in the Desert. Prof. Shimon Rachmilevitch has been appointed to be center’s first director. The new center will be established at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) within the framework of the School for Sustainability and Climate Change. BGU President Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, a world-renowned expert on food security, will be guiding the development of the center.
Prof. Arnon Karnieli and Prof. Shimon Rachmilevitch
Crude oil pollution is a global environmental concern since it persists in the environment longer than most conventional carbon sources.
In December 2014, the hyper-arid Evrona Nature Reserve, Israel, experienced large-scale contamination when crude oil spilled. The overarching goal of the study was to investigate the possible changes, caused by an accidental crude oil spill, in the leaf reflectance and biochemical composition of four natural habitat desert shrubs.
The specific objectives were (1) to monitor the biochemical properties of dominant shrub species in the polluted and control areas; (2) to study the long-term consequences of the contamination; (3) to provide information that will assist in planning rehabilitation actions; and (4) to explore the feasibility of vegetation indices (VIs), along with the machine learning (ML) technique, for detecting stressed shrubs based on the full spectral range. Four measurement campaigns were conducted in 2018 and 2019.
Along with the various stress indicators, field spectral measurements were performed in the range of 350–2500 nm. A regression analysis to examine the relation of leaf reflectance to biochemical contents was carried out, to reveal the relevant wavelengths
in which polluted and control plants differ. Vegetation indices applied in previous studies were found to be less sensitive for indirect detection of long-term oil contamination. A novel spectral index, based on indicative spectral bands, named the
“normalized blue-green stress index” (NBGSI), was established. The NBGSI distinguished significantly between shrubs located in the polluted and in the control areas. The NBGSI showed a strong linear correlation with pheophytin a. Machine
learning classification algorithms obtained high overall prediction accuracy in distinguishing between shrubs located in the oil-polluted and the control sites, indicating internal component differences. The findings of this study demonstrate the
efficacy of indirect and non-destructive spectral tools for detecting and monitoring oil pollution stress in shrubs.
This project was a collaborative work of Timea Ignat, Natalie De Falco, Reut Berger-Tal, Shimon Rachmilevitch, and Arnon Karnieli with the support of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority along with HaMaarag. The authors would also like to thank the invaluable help of Liron Summerfield.
ISF grant title:A systems biology analysis of Halophila stipulacea physiological and molecular responses to single and combined stressors related to climate change and eutrophication.
Principal Investigators: Prof. Simon Barak (FAAB) and Dr. Gidon Winters (Dead Sea and Arava Science Center).
Abstract:
The northern Gulf of Aqaba supports highly productive seagrass meadows dominated by the tropical seagrass Halophila stipulacea, valued at over $ 2,000,000 yr in Eilat alone. However, simultaneous eutrophication, ocean carbonation and rapid ocean warming stressors threaten seagrass survival. Most seagrass environmental stress studies have focused on single stressors that do not mimic realistic scenarios where plants are subjected to a combination of stressors. Lack of information on molecular responses of seagrasses to combined stress is also problematic because combination-unique morphophysiological states, gene sets and expression patterns cannot be predicted from responses to single stresses. Complexity is added by the presence of multiple genotypes within seagrass populations that increase the variability of the stress response. We hypothesize that: 1) H. stipulacea exposed to combined abiotic stresses exhibits unique morpho-physiological/molecular responses compared to plants under to single stresses; 2) Seagrass meadows contain genotypic diversity that could allow certain genotypes to adapt to multiple abiotic stresses better than other genotypes. Therefore, our objectives are to: (i) gain a comprehensive systems biology understanding of H. stipulacea morphophysiological/molecular responses to single and combined thermal, nutrient and carbonation stressors; (ii) use co-expression network analysis to link transcriptome responses to changes in the growth, physiology and biochemistry of H. stipulacea exposed to the single and combined stressors, facilitating the identification of a core set of stress and “early-warning” genes; (iii) identify genotypes that exhibit differing tolerance to single and combined stressors; (iv) analyze the growth/physiological/biochemical and targeted gene expression responses of H. stipulacea stress-sensitive and -tolerant genotypes to the single and combined stressors. A seagrass-dedicated mesocosm will be used to expose H.stipulacea to predicted single and combined stresses (32 °C, pCO2 of 1,900 μatm [pH =7.6] and 20 μmol l-1 NO3-). A suite of growth/physiology/biochemistry parameters, as well as transcriptome responses, will be analyzed. Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis will link morpho-physiological traits under stress with transcriptome changes and identify a panel of 96 genes linked to stress (including early warning genes). H. stipulacea genotypes will be identified via genotyping, and the performance of 10 genotypes in response to single/combined stresses will be assessed. Using high-throughput qPCR (microfluidics), we will analyze the expression of the 96-gene panel in the most tolerant and sensitive genotypes. We expect that this research will provide insights into the morpho-physiological/molecular responses of H. stipulacea to single and combined stresses, support the notion that genotypic diversity contributes to the resilience of local populations to predicted environmental changes, and provide crucial physiological and molecular data for local and regional seagrass monitoring programs.
Budget: NIS 1,080,000, Grant period: 4 years
ISF grant title: Atmospheric-water capture by the world’s desert soils
Principal Investigators: Nurit Agam & Dilia Kool (FAAB)
Abstract:
Atmospheric water, or non-rainfall water inputs (NRWIs) are an important source of water in arid areas. The large area of arid regions and the frequent occurrence of NRWIs in these regions make them a critical, albeit largely overlooked, component of the global hydrological cycle. There is also increasing evidence that NRWIs can activate soil respiration, which implies that they could initiate CO2 flux.
Quantification of NRWIs, in the form of fog, dew, or water vapor adsorption, and how they affect the water, energy, and CO2 budgets, has mostly been done at local scales. The little that is known about the global extent of NRWIs is known primarily about dew, the smallest of NRWI components to contribute moisture to soils in arid regions. Water vapor adsorption, on the other hand, is likely the most significant, yet the least studied, NRWI. We propose, for the first time, to make a global assessment of water vapor adsorption by the world’s desert soils, and of the potential implications for soil-atmosphere CO2 exchange. To get a handle on the extent and magnitude of water vapor adsorption on a global scale, we will develop a potential water vapor adsorption index. The index development will comprise three steps: (a) developing a reference water vapor adsorption index (A0) for pure sand, which is a well-defined and abundant material. To relate A0 to natural soils, we will then (b) define a potential water vapor adsorption index (Apot), hypothesizing that a relationship between A0 and Apot can be established for different soil types using texture-specific water vapor isotherms. Lastly (c), we will validate and map Apot for global deserts,using gridded meteorological data and soil texture maps. Assessing the actual water vapor adsorption (Aact), relative to Apot at selected sites, will then provide more insight into the range of NRWIs that may be expected and how much these values vary. Lastly, we will explore the magnitudes of soil-atmosphere CO2 exchange in response to Aact. The proposed objectives will be addressed in depth at a local long-term site in the Negev Desert, with additional short-term validation expeditions at local and global sites.
Successful execution of the proposed research will, for the first time, provide a quantitative global assessment of potential water vapor adsorption. A global map of Apot will provide an upper limit of its contribution to desert hydrology and will shed light on its potential effect on desert energy balance and consequently climate models. Finally, this will be the first time to quantitatively relate soil CO2 flux to NRWIs.
Budget:NIS 1,350,000, Grant period: 5 years
ISF grant title: Understanding the dynamics and fate of lipid droplets in a model diatom
Principal Investigators:Inna Khozin-Goldberg (FAAB)
Abstract
Lipid droplets are lipid storage organelles present in most eukaryotic cell types. Lipid droplets fulfill critical functions in sustaining cell survival during nutrient stress and have numerous functions at the nexus of metabolic pathways and intracellular systems.
Manyfundamentalquestions related to lipid droplet metabolism in microalgae remain unanswered. The proposed research will explore the oleaginous pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum as the model organism.
The overarching goal of this project is to determine the primary mechanisms that mediate lipid expansion and turnover in P. tricornutum. We are interested in understanding how diatoms expand and degrade lipid droplets. The project will investigate the association of lipid droplet biogenesis and breakdown in P. tricornutum with autophagic machinery. Are lipid droplets degraded by autophagy-dependent (lipophagy) or autophagy-independent mechanisms (lipolysis), or both? How do different types of lipid droplet degradative machineries interact? What activities are involved in lipid droplet core and envelope degradation and acyl group release from triacylglycerol (TAG) for β-oxidation?
The functional roles of the primary targets will be assessed by comparing lipid droplet biogenesis and degradation dynamics in knockout (KO) and overexpressing transgenic lines under conditions of different N availability. We will use cell biology
and systems biology approaches (transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics) applied to validated selected KO and overexpressing lines.The investigation of lipid droplet metabolisms in this commercialized diatom is important from the biotechnological
aspect to improve the productivity of microalgal lipids and valuable polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Budget: NIS 1,080,000, Grant period: 4 years, and 38,000 NIS for international cooperation.
Start-up BSF
Sequestration of heavy metals using exopolysaccharides produced by cyanobacteria grown at ultrahigh CO2 levels
Principal Investigators: Dr. Nina Kamennaya (FAAB) in collaboration with Prof. Michael Cohen (Sonoma State University, CA)
Abstract: At ultra-high CO2 levels, cyanobacteria exude copious acidic exopolysaccharides (EPS). Owing to their negative charge, EPS can both sorb positively charged metals from solution and, in presence of Ca/Mg, induce nucleation of carbonates. We will assess the capacity of acidic EPS to sorb heavy metals and to sequester them into mineral carbonates more resilient to weathering compared to organic EPS.
Budget: 75,000$
A postdoctoral position for two years is available.
COST Action Management Committee member
Prof. Nurit Agam has been appointed a COST Action Management Committee member,
Recently, Michael Mba Kusibu, an M.Sc. student in Nina Kamennaya's lab, has been awarded an interdisciplinary scholarship.
In his research, Michael combines microbiological and molecular research methods with agricultural approaches. He strives to reveal whether acidic polysaccharides from desert cyanobacteria can increase the availability of water to plants.
.jpg)
