Tal has started her Ph.D. with Professor Mike Krom, Professor Dani Tchernov, and Professor Ilana Berman-Frank as part of the Marine Chemistry Laboratory at the Moris Kahn Marine Research Station. During her masters, she created the first high-resolution and high-sensitivity nutrient dataset from the Israeli shelf and off-shore water, that showed the seasonality of nutrient concentrations in the EMS. Tal has developed a new APA and chlorophyll bioassay that will allow the assessment of autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrient limitations. In her Ph.D. work, Tal aims to assess the nutrient limitation of different phytoplankton taxa during different seasons and develop new methods to evaluate the community composition and activity in regards to their chemical environment. This will allow quantification of the autotrophic activity of the system and the effect of the changing climate and pollution on these crucial populations.
Numerous works have been published studying the effects of warming on the sea surface, however, studies on the influence in the deep sea remain limited. Yet research suggests the excess heat occurs in the deep ocean, below 700m. To provide a detailed paleoclimate understanding of the decadal to millennial time scale of ocean warming and anthropogenic effects since the Little Ice Age within the Southeastern Mediterranean Sea, I will be using: i) the recent sedimentary record to characterize the emergence of industrial-era warming and the effects of the Nile damming; ii) the pore-water to understand the physical-chemical flux variations in the water column and the seafloor and; iii) the changes in the benthic environment as a response to oceanographic variability. The proposed methods to be utilized include geochemical and sedimentological techniques; micropaleontology; sediment dating techniques and seafloor mapping. Characterization of these physical and chemical dynamics within the marine system will aid in constraining Earth system models and inform potential adaptive and mitigation strategies that will be implemented into the predictive modeling framework.
Or M. Bialik is a multi-disciplinary Earth scientist studying oceanic and climatic changes in Earth’s present and geological past. Their work integrates sedimentology, geochemistry and paleoceanography to reconstruct the most complete picture of environmental change over time.
In the ultra-oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean Sea, dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) may be critical for sustaining primary productivity, particularly during nitrate and ammonium depletion periods. Urea is likely a proxy for DON as a known bioavailable organic form of nitrogen. My project is to determine urea's relative potential availability and in-situ uptake rates compared with ammonium and nitrate, during contrasting seasons of nitrate repletion and depletion in the EMS.
Assessment of the functioning of the biological carbon pump and particle export in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, by analyzing sinking material fluxes using sediment traps and the 234thorium- 238uranium disequilibrium technique.
I am a Senior Scientist at GEOMAR interested in the controls on phytoplankton abundance, ecology and physiology in the ocean. We use a highly multidisciplinary combination of fieldwork (mostly open ocean research cruises), phytoplankton culturing experiments, diverse analytical techniques, numerical analysis and simple modelling. This is supplemented by a combination of satellite remote sensing and analysis of climate model output. I have recently started a junior research group funded by an ERC grant.
My project is about Coast-to-Open Sea connectivity, with an emphasis on how physical phenomena affect biological and ecological processes. Currently we are investigating how seasonality of sub-mesoscale features affects the spatio-temporal phenology of phytoplanktonic blooms.
Research Title: Cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies as habitats for zooplankton in the Southeastern Mediterranean Sea.
Ocean eddies affect climate by transporting and mixing heat, carbon, and nutrients. Cyclonic eddies in the Northern Hemisphere have a counterclockwise rotation with a slow vertical upwelling flow, while anticyclonic eddies rotate clockwise with a vertical downwelling flow. Eddies in the Southeastern Mediterranean Sea have lifetimes that affect plankton communities and allow for detection of changes in composition. My research will characterize the variability, physicochemical attributes, and biology of eddies using a multidisciplinary approach, including satellite data, research vessels, autonomous gliders, and camera-based vision profiler, to better understand their ecological impact and how they can potentially support sensitive species or facilitate the arrival of alien species.
I am interested in the CaCO3 cycle in the ocean, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean. By analyzing particulate inorganic carbon and its isotopes, dissolved calcium (Ca) and strontium (Sr), and combined with water chemistry to quantify CaCO3 sources and sinks and the biogeochemical processes that govern the distribution of CaCO3 in these regions.
I am interested in gelatinous communities of the midwater (mesopelagic zone) and their role in carbon fluxes, including the biological carbon pump. To quantify their diversity, biomass and distribution, I am using in situ cameras and traditional zooplankton nets. Cameras are excellent for quantifying diversities and distributions of fragile fauna such as most gelatinous organisms, while nets are good to quantify the diversities, distributions, and biomass of sturdy zooplankton. Stereovision or using lasers with cameras allow to measure fragile fauna in situ and with the help of allometric equations, I can estimate their biomass. Furthermore, I am also interested in the fate of dead gelatinous organisms. I am using baited traps to capture scavengers for diet studies to infer food fall diversities. Baited camera landers can identify the succession and diversity of gelatinous food fall scavengers and their consumption rate. Combining all these data will give us a good understanding of the gelatinous community composition in the mesopelagic and their role as an energy source for scavengers.
Photo credit: Solvin Zankl
At GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Dr. Henk-Jan Hoving leads a working group that investigates the biology and biodiversity of deep-sea organisms, their interactions and their role in oceanic foodwebs and the biological carbon pump. Organisms of particular interest include cephalopods (squids and octopuses) and gelatinous macro zooplankton (e.g. medusae, siphonophores and ctenophores). These organisms are responsive to climate change and abundant prey and predators in the deep sea. Hoving and his team apply camera systems and submersibles to study deep-sea organisms in their natural habitat (in situ) as well as environmental DNA analysis and net sampling to study biodiversity and distribution patterns also in relation to environmental gradients which are changing as a result of climate change.
At present, although technically retired, I still work full time leading the Biogeochemical group at the Sdot yam Marine station. Our latest work is using measurements of dissolved inorganic nutrients, Nitrate and Phosphate, in the waters off the Israeli coast to understand and quantify the effects of environmental and climate change. Our latest research is showing that global climate change is making the natural ‘feast and famine’ of the offshore waters more extreme. Such research is crucial if we are to make scientific based decisions of exploiting the new Israeli frontier.
I am working on developing a trait-based biogeochemical model for the EMS on the basis of an existing 1D optimality-based framework. The model will be calibrated with data from 1) existing databases, and 2) data acquired from EMS-FORE through an interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers from the University of Haifa to simulate past, present and future climate scenarios for the EMS.
Dr. Ari Meilijson is implementing sedimentological, stratigraphic, and geo-biological toolsets into the study of diverse geological systems, spanning the Triassic to the Anthropocene, to try and understand paleoclimates and their influence on the biosphere.
He is specifically interested in the interrelationship between productivity, bottom water environments, and organic matter quality, quantity, preservation, and source. His work has shown that the biochemical reciprocity of present and deep-time marine systems is found to be extremely complex and dynamic. Moreover, his work on Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic deposits has shown that sustained life, one of the key factors in depositional reconstructions, is found to be very resilient by using remarkable adaptations to cope with, and even thrive in, stressed and extreme environments.
Ari is a field and core-analysis geologist, and his dogma is that a multi-proxy approach is essential in the fields of sedimentology, basin analysis, and palaeoceanographic reconstructions, particularly when studying abnormal & organic-rich or hypersaline environments.
Ari’s main research interests are geobiology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleoclimates, and petroleum systems.
My work focusses on optimality-based and trait-based (adaptive) modelling of plankton organisms and ecosystems on different scales, ranging from lab experiments to Earth system models. I am interested in interactions between biotic plankton processes and biogeochemical cycles and I attempt to advance modelling of evolution and maintenance of biodiversity in plankton ecosystems.
My research in the field of biological oceanography deals with primary production in the ocean. Specifically, carbon fixation that is not mitigated through photosynthesis by photoautotrophs, but by alternative metabolic processes by chemoautotrophs. My study sites concentrate on low nutrient low chlorophyll areas such as the East Mediterranean and the North Red Sea. My overall goal is to highlight the importance of a full water column carbon fixation monitoring on a global scale in light of our current need to evaluate the marine carbon system in the changing oceans.
Hi everyone! I'm Rachele and I work as a marine biologist within the EMS-FORE project. I will mainly focus on exploring the microplankton communities inhabiting the oligotrophic waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. Imaging techniques will allow me to take a look at zooplanktonic organisms, in order to accurately describe their distributions and estimate the related carbon fluxes. On the other hand, I will also dedicate time to molecular lab work to dive into the phytoplanktonic world. Hopefully, this whole research will give us a better understanding on the complex dynamics of the Eastern Mediterranean and maybe help us predict future climate change scenarios.
The ocean occupies 70% of the earth, and influences almost every aspect of our life. Nevertheless, it is a complex environment that it is hard to explore and thus still little is known about it. The lab is intrigued by both the challenges in ocean research as well as the discoveries that lay behind solving these challenges. The lab's goal is to develop novel optical imaging systems and computer vision methods to explore the ocean and its inhabitants.
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