Program DDD 2017

6 November, 2017

09:00-09:30 Opening and Greetings

George Evens Family Auditorium

• Chair of Conference
• Prof. Boris Zaltzman, Director BIDR, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
• Prof. Zvi Hacohen, Rector,  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,
• HE Mr. Gianluigi Benedetti, Ambassador of Italy
• H.E. Mr. Koji Tomita, Ambassador of Japan
• Ms. Monique Barbut, Secretary General UNCCD (video)

09:30-09:50 A tribute to Prof. Safriel on his 80th birthday and his contribution to the UNCCD

• Prof. Boris Zaltzman, Director, BIDR, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
• Luc Gnacadja (former Secretary General UNCCD)
• Alon Bar, Deputy Director General for the UN and International Organizations (ARBEL), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel

09:50-10:30 Plenary Presentation

• Prof. Rattan Lal, Distinguished Professor, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, The Ohio State University, USA

Carbon Sequestration by Combating Desertification in Global Drylands

Sessions 11:00-13:00

Animal distribution, abundance and interactions in drylands and in response to desertification

Conveners: Michal Segoli

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19)

• Chris R. Dickman, Aaron C. Greenville and Glenda M. Wardle

Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Predicting animal responses to desertification

• Klaus Birkhofer, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Brandenburg, Germany
  Direct and indirect climate effects on trophic and behavioural interactions in desert-living spiders
   
• Jonathan Tichon, Idan Goodman, Gila Kahila Bar-Gal, David Saltz and Shirli Bar-David
  Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Population structure and space use patterns of the Nubian ibex in Israel's Deserts: from coarse to fine scales
   
• Gad Perry¹, Robin Verble¹, Anna Meyer¹, Rachel Granberg²
  ¹Tech University,²United States Forest Service Texas
  Do Texas horned lizard home range size and demography vary in response to land management and ant prey abundance in drought-impacted arid grasslands of the southwestern United States?
   
• Michal Zaitove-Raz¹, Tamar Dayan^1,2, Yoav Motro³
  ¹School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, ²The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, ³Plant Protection and Inspection Services, Israel Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
  Biological control and rodent conservation in the Northwestern Negev.
   

Soil component of regional and global climate models

Conveners: Naftali Lazarovitch and Golan Bel

Seminar Room (Building # 9)

• Stephen Sitch, University of Exeter, UK
  Drylands important for the trend and interannual variability in the global land carbon sink
   
• Shabtai Cohen, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel.
  Land use change, climate and rainfall – the Israeli perspective
   
• Yosef Ashkenazy, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Sand dune albedo feedback
   
• Erick Fredj, Lev Institute, Jerusalem, Israel
  Evaluation of radar-commercial microwave link merging methods for quantitative precipitation estimates

Biodeterioration and preservation of desert archeological sites

Conveners: Francesca Cappitelli and Tali Erickson-Gini

Seminar Room Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (Building # 14)

• Francesca Cappitelli, University of Milan, Italy

Introduction

• Tali Erickson-Gini, Israel Antiquities Authority
  "The Stone Will Cry Out From the Wall" – Hewn Stones from Classical Period Sites in the Negev Highlands
   
• Marina Gallinaro, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
  Surface biodegradation processes of artefacts, monuments and rock art: challenges and potentialities. An archaeological perspective from the Saharan region.
   
• Federica Villa, University of Milan, Italy
  Lithotype and environmental conditions vs biofilms: the case study of the monumental cemetery of Milan
   
• Lior Schwimmer, Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Ben Gurion University of the Negev
  Patina as a tool for relative dating of rock art motifs
   
• Nimrod Wieler, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Biofilm development rates on rock surfaces in arid regions
   
  Role and function of organic matter in dryland soils: Carbon sequestration by combating desertification
   

Convener: Gilboa Arye

Class Room No. 1 (Building # 48)

• Rattan Lal, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, Ohio State University, USA.
  Importance of organic matter in soils of dryland ecosystems
   
• Yona Chen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel .
  Beneficial and Potential Adverse Effects of Irrigation with Treated Wastewater
   
• Jörg Bachmann, Institute of Soil Science, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany.
  Soil Carbon and Soil Functions: How Solid Interfacial Chemistry and Wettability Control Bio-Physical Processes
   
• Asher Bar-Tal, Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, ARO Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel.
  Long-term effects of compost on the dynamics of soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools
   
• Shmuel Assouline, Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, ARO Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel.
  Impact of irrigation with treated wastewater on soil physical and chemical properties and on biological conditions in the root zone
   
• Guy J. Levy, Anna Lordian, Dina Goldstein and Mikhail Borisover ARO Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel.
  Soil structural indices association with chromophoric components in water-extractable organic matter in irrigated soils
   
• P. Sharma¹, Yael Laor², Michael Raviv³, Shlomit Medina², Ibrahim Saadi², Arkady Krasnovsky², M. Vager⁴, Guy J. Levy⁴, Asher Bar-Tal⁴, Mikhail Borisover⁴
   
  ¹FoA Chatha, SKUAST-Jammu, Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Jammu, India; ²Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, ARO, Ramat Yishay; ³Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Institute of Plant Sciences, ARO, Ramat Yishay; ⁴Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, ARO The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
  Soil enriched by organic amendments: insights into organic matter composition from excitation-emission fluorescence and mid-IR spectroscopies
   
• R. Yahav Spitzer and Amit Gross, Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology, Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  The use of hydrothermally treated human excretions as soil amendment
   
• Gilboa Arye, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  Adsorption kinetics of dissolved organic matter at the water-air interface
   
   
   
   

  Sessions 14:30-16:30

   

Plant abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms for coping with arid and semi-arid environments  

Conveners: Vered Tzin and Rakefet David-Schwartz

Seminar Room Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research  (Building # 14)

• Herve Cochard, UMR-PIAF, INRA, Université Clermont-Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Plant hydraulics under extreme drought

• Sylvain Delzon, Researcher at INRA, Bordeaux, France, Editor in Chief of JPH, France.
  Aridity drove the evolution of extreme embolism resistance
   
• Yakir Preisler, Earth and Planetary science department Weizmann institute and Plant science institute, the Faculty of Agriculture, Israel.
  The importance of tree internal water storage is revealed during a mortality cascade in a semiarid pine forest
   
• Daniela Jerszurki (1), Parthasarathi Theivasigamani (1), Juliana Espada Lichston (2), Adi Yaaran (3), Menachem Moshelion (3), Naftali Lazarovitch (1), Shimon Rachmilevitch (1)
   
  (1) Wyler Department of Dryland Agriculture, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer. (2) Department of Botany and Zoology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil;(3) The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural, Food & Environmental Quality Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
  Root:shoot relations in mesophyll ABA-insensitive tomato plants
   
• Gad Miller, Gilad, Luria¹, Adina Berger¹, Tirza Doniger¹, Karen Schlauch², Jeff Harper²
  ¹ The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel. ² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA.
  Induced Auxin signaling and flavonols biosynthesis in ascorbate peroxidase 2 (APX2)- deficient Arabidopsis increase pollen thermotolerance
   
• Tamar Avin-Wittenberg, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
  Autophagy as a possible mechanism for stress tolerance in plants
   
• Gideon Grafi, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  Lessening epigenetic constrains in the desert plant Zygophyllum dumosum Boiss
   

Self-organized vegetation patchiness: observations, modeling and model analysis

Convener:  Ehud Meron

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19) (14:30-16:30; 17:00-19:00)

• Arjen Doelman,  Institute of Mathematics,  Leiden University, The Netherlands.

Gradual or catastrophic: desertification dynamics and interacting localized structures

• Mustapha Tlidi, Department of Physics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
  Large scale patchy ecosystems may increase total biomass through a self-replication phenomenon
   
• Pierre Couteron, IRD – UMR AMAP, Montpellier, France.
  Accounting for change in spatially periodic vegetation patterns along ample rainfall gradients: The wavelength issue
   
• Moshe Shachak, SIDEER, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
  Does a state change in drylands induces vegetation-patch modifications? A case study of LTER site Park Shaked in the Northern Negev
   
• Maxim Shoshani, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel.
  Pattern Water Use Efficiency: modeling and assessing based on Cellular Automata simulation and shrub growth models
   
• Prof. Nadav Shnerb, Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
  Empirical analysis of vegetation dynamics and the possibility of a catastrophic desertification transition
   
• Wenzhi Zhao, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
  Exploring the self-organization process of sand-fixing plantation in a desert-oasis ecotone, northwestern China
   
• Omer Tzuk, Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  The Role of Self-Organized Spatial Patterns in the Design of Agroforestry Systems
   
• Sangeeta Ujjwal, Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  Oscillatory modes in vegetation models with temporal forcing
   
   

Soil-atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases

Conveners: Naftali Lazarovitch and Golan Bel

Seminar Room (Building # 9)

• Dan Yakir, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Dry-land ecosystem processes related to water, carbon and energy under anthropogenic pressure

• Alon Angert, Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
  The ratio of CO₂ to O₂ fluxes in arid versus mesic soils
   
• Eran Tas, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
  Ozone deposition over vegetation under warm and dry conditions
   
•  Ilya Gelfand, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  Effects of rewetting and available carbon on soil nitrous oxide emissions
   
• Peter Brugger, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
  Phase differences of turbulence fluctuations over semi-arid shrubland and forest canopy
   
• Theodor Bughici, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  Numerical weather predictions of reference evapotranspiration for irrigation optimization
   
   
   
   

  Sessions 17:00-19:00

   
   

The environmental change-biodiversity-disease triangle: host-parasite interactions in the era of global changes in land use, temperatures, and aridity, with implications for disease risk

Convener: Hadas Hawlena

Class Room No. 1 (Building # 48)

• Serge Morand, Faculty of Veterinary Technology, Kasetsart University , Bangkok and CNRS and CIRAD, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Montpellier, France

An introduction: The environmental change-biodiversity-disease triangle: host-parasite interactions in the era of global changes in land use, temperatures, and aridity, with implications for disease risk

• Takuya Iwamura, Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  The potential risk of various zoonotic disease based on phenology model under climate change

• Ran Nathan¹, Andrew Wolfenden¹, Roni King², Avishai Lublin³ and Wayne Getz⁴
   
  ¹Movement ecology lab, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem;²Chief veterinarian, Nature and Parks Authority;³Avian Disease Unit, National Kimron Veterinary Institute, Israel. ⁴Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, University of California at Berkeley

On climate, migratory birds, and infectious diseases

• Snir Halle, Mario Garrido, Tarin Paz, Zehava Siega, Yaron Ziv , Arnon Karnieli, and Hadas Hawlena

Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute of Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob    Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel. 

From sand stabilization to bacterial communities in vertebrates; connecting between scales.

• Cyril Caminade, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, UK.
  Modeling and mapping the risk of key vector-borne diseases under climate change scenarios
   
   

Efficient use of water in dryland agriculture

Convener:  Nurit Agam

6^th November, 2017. Seminar Room (Building # 9) (17:00-19:00)

• Norman Rosenberg, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

A Biomass Future for the North American Great Plains

• Henri Rueff, Universities of Basel and Bern, Switzerland
  Economics of dryland no-till wheat supports climate change adaptation
   
• Ingrid Hartmann, Dryres, Germany
  Dealing with Water and Data Scarcity: Land Use Planning for Integrated Water Management
   
• Yael Wagner, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture; Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
  Seasonal and diurnal hydraulic dynamics in lemon and olive under drought
   
• Indira Paudel, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel
  Elevated CO 2 compensates for drought effects in lemon saplings via stomatal downregulation, increased soil moisture, and increased wood carbon storage
   
• Daniela Jerszurki, Brazil and BGU

Alternative reference evapotranspiration model applied to hourly temporal scale in Brazil

7th November, 2017

Sessions 8:30-10:30

Mechanics of granular matter 

Conveners: Ido Regev, Roiy Sayag, Yosef Ashkenazy and Hezi Yizhaq

Seminar Room Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Building (Building # 24) (8:30-10:30; 11:00-13:00)

• Yoel Forterre, Laboratoire IUSTI, CNRS, Aix Marseille University, France

Unifying Impacts in Granular Matter from Quicksand to Cornstarch

• Itamar Procaccia, The Weizmann Institute of Science
  Mechanical failure in amorphous solids: Scale-free spinodal criticality
   
• Yasmine Meroz, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  Intermittent Granular Dynamics at a Seismogenic Plate Boundary
   
• Leonid Prigozhin, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  Scaling in modeling sand surface evolution
   
• Yoav G. Pollack, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
  Emergent Many-body Interactions in Amorphous Solids
   
• Bruno Andreotti, ESPCI Paris Tech, France
  Formation and non-linear growth of dunes
   
• Hezi Yitshak, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  The origin of the transverse instability of aeolian megaripples
   

Vegetation patterns and processes in dryland regions in relation to land use and climate change

Conveners: Yael Lubin

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19)

• Francisco Pugnaire,  Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas, Almeria, Spain Plant-soil interactions and plant community dynamics
• Tarin Paz-Kagan¹, Philip Brodrick², Nicholas R. Vaughn², Adrian J. Das³, Nathan L. Stephenson³, Koren R. Nydick ⁴, and Gregory P. Asner²
  ¹ Department of sensing, information and mechanization engineering, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Volcani Center, Israel;²Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA; ³U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center;
  ⁴Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, USA

What mediates tree mortality during drought in the southern Sierra Nevada?

• Joh R. Henschel^1*, Theo. D. Wassenaar², Keir Soderberg³

1: South African Environmental Observation Network, Arid Lands Node, P.O.Box 11040, Hadison Park 8306, Kimberley, South Africa.;2: Gobabeb Research and Training Centre, P.O.Box 953, Walvis Bay, Namibia;3: Princeton University, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton, NJ, USA.

What can roots tell us about desert ecohydrology? A closer look at long-lived Welwitschia mirabilis

• Moran Segoli, Ramat Negev Desert Agro-Research Center & Southern Research and Development Center, Israel
  The limiting effect of water and nitrogen on pasture yields in the grazing lands of northern Australia
   
• Ilan Stavi, Hezi Yizhaq, Amgad Hijazen, Reut Berger-Tal, Shimon Rachmilevitch, Golan Bel
  Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, Israel     
  Geodiversity decreases shrub mortality and increases ecosystem durability to prolonged droughts and climate change
   
• Liang Chen, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  Modeling and analysis of the potential impacts on regional climate due to vegetation degradation over arid and semi-arid regions of China

Urban form of dryland cities - mitigating effects of climate change and environmental degradation

Convener: Evyatar Erell and David Pearlmutter

Seminar Room (Building # 9)

• Gerald Mills, School of Geography, University College, Dublin

Urban climatology: current status and prospects

• Shai Kaplan, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Surface', 'Satellite' or 'Simulation': mapping intra-urban microclimate variability
   
• Hadas Saaroni, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  Climatic Stress Index as a tool for synoptic classification of the summer season
   
• Adi Vulkan, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Planning, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Modelling the potential for PV installation in residential buildings in dense urban areas

Desert soil crusts: current and future roles in desert ecosystems

Convener: Ali Nejidat and Jayne Belnap

Class Room No. 1 (Building # 48)

• Jayne Belnap and YuanMing Zhang
  U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center,  U.S.A; Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Urumqi, PR China
  Assembly rules and patterns in dryland vascular plant communities: biological soil crusts can play an influential role
   
• Roberto De Philippis, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy
  New insights on the structure and the role of the exopolysaccharidic matrix in biocrusts
•  

• Barger, N.N. 1, Faist, A.2, Antoninka A.J.³, Giraldo Silva, A.⁴, Velasco Ayuso, S.⁴, Bowker, M.A.³, Reed, S.C.⁵, Duniway, M.⁵, Garcia-Pichel, F. ⁴, Belnap, J. ⁵

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80305 USA;²Animal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University ;³School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287 USA;⁴School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona;⁵Canyonlands Research Station, US Geological Survey, Moab, Utah SA         Biocrust inoculum development and soil stabilization strategies to promote biocrust restoration

• ^aZaady Eli, ^bUngar Eugene D., ^aShuker Shimshon
  Department of Natural Resources, Agricultural Research Organization, Gilat Research Center, 85280 Negev;^bDepartment of Natural Resources, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Research Center, Israel;

Biological soil crust restoration; A case study from the northern Negev Desert

• Nadav Oren¹, Hagai Raanan^1,2, Omer Murik¹, Nir Keren¹ and Aaron Kaplan¹
  ¹Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

²Present address: Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University, USA Dawn illumination serves as a signal preparing desert cyanobacteria towards forthcoming dehydration

• Sonia Chamizo, Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences (DISPAA), University of Florence, Firenze, Italy.
  Increasing soil stability and fertility through cyanobacteria inoculation to combat land degradation processes in drylands
   
   

NGOs for water: activities in rural communities

Convener:  Noam Weisbrod and Ornit Avidar

 Seminar Room Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (Building # 14) (8:30-10:30; 17:00-19:00)

• Ornit Avidar, African Division, Politics and Government Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

Analysis of Access to Clean Water in Rural Siaya, Kenya

• Naomi Caplan and Michal Bruck, NALA- NTD Advocacy, Learning, Action , Israel Toward the Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Ethiopia: ngaging the community in behavioral change education and WASH improvements
   
• Sivan Yaari, Innovation Africa, Israel
  Unleashing Africa's Water Using Israeli Technology
   
• Avihai Ilan, Kibbutz Rosh Hanikra, Israel
  Mini nursery: a water saving solution for the production of quality vegetable plants by smallholder farmers
   
• Clive Lipchin, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Israel
  Solutions for Off Grid Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Needs in Arid Lands
   
• Isabel Portugal, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  Women Empowerment in Sustainable Agriculture and Biotechnology for Dryland Systems (WESAB) Project
   
• Naama Raz-Yaseef, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, USA, and Muonde Trust
  Pump it Up for the Community Gardens of the Women of Zimbabwe
   
• Angela Moreno, National Institute of Agrarian Research and Development, Cabo Verde
  Improving the use fo Drip Irrigation Systems in an Arid Climate:  Challenges and Solutions for Water - Over-Use by Smallholder Farmers in Cabo Verde
   
• Haberfeld Alon, Fair Planet, Israel
  Bridging the seed gap.
   
   
   
• Isabel Portugal, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Women Empowerment in Sustainable Agriculture and Biotechnology for Dryland Systems (WESAB) Project
   
   
   

Sessions 11:00-13:00

Vegetation Patterns and Animal Distribution

Conveners: Yael Lubin and Michal Segoli

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19)

• Izak Smit^1,2, Corli Wigley-Coetsee¹ and Cathy Greaver¹

1 Scientific Services, South African National Parks; 2 School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Lessons learned from drought – a case study from the Kruger National Park, South Africa

• Omer Tzuk [1], Merav Seifan [2], Ehud Meron [1,3]
  Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Marco and Louise Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, SIDEER, BIDR, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, SIDEER, BIDR, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Precipitation and seasonality regulate plant ecohydrological strategies along climatic gradients
   
• Uri Roll et al., University of Oxford, England and Ben-Gurion University, Israel
  Reptiles illuminate deserts and drylands as a missing component of global conservation priority schemes
   
• Dror Hawlena and Gideon Szamet
  Risk-Management Ecology Lab, Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Predation regulates Nitrogen cycling in a desert ecosystem
   
• Itamar Giladi¹, Gilad Ben Zvi¹, Nataly Levine¹, Marie Konečná² and Merav Seifan¹
  ¹Marco and Louise Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; ²Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, ČeskéBudějovice, The Czech Republic
  Deserted in the desert – mismatch in local distributions of a plant and its seed disperser in desert populations.
   
• Osvaldo Sala, Laureano Gherardi
  Global Drylands Center, Arizona State University, USA
  Effects of climate change on ecosystems through directional changes in amount and variability of precipitation
   
  
  

Water flow and heat transport in dryland soils: modeling and measurements

Conveners: Naftali Lazarovitch and Golan Bel

Class Room No. 1 (Building # 48)

• Wolfgang Durner, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Geoecology, Soil Science and Soil Physics, Germany.
  The contribution of capillary, film, and vapor flow to water transport in soil: Model conceptualization, parametrization, and application
   
• Dani Or, Dept. Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
  Surface evaporative capacitance – soil type and rainfall characteristics used to bound soil evaporation estimates
   
• Gerrit H. de Rooij, Soil Physics Department, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ, Germany.
  Simulating groundwater recharge in deep vadose zones: effects of climate and the importance of the soil hydraulic parameterization
   
• Shmuel Assouline, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel.
  Impact of ambient conditions on evaporation from porous media
   
• Alex Furman, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel.
  Hydraulic properties of unsaturated biofilm-affected soils
   
   
  Multi-Source land imaging for studying desertification and land degradation

Conveners: Garik Gutman and Arnon Karnieli

Seminar Room (Building # 9)

• Jiaguo Qi¹, Steven Pueppke² and Xi Chen³
  Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing;Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing,USA;Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China
  Multi-source remote sensing for water-energy-food nexus of Ili-Balkhash basin
   

• Ben DeVries, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, USA
  When the well runs dry: Monitoring surface water dynamics in drylands using virtual constellations of Earth Observation satellites
   
• Jisung Chang, Technion, Israel
  Synergetic effect of radar polarization properties and ecological pattern properties in desert fringe ecosystems
   
• Son Nghiem, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA
  Multi-Sourced Land Imaging of 3D Urbanization in Dryland Environments
   
• Mutlu Ozdogan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
  Quantifying the changes in Syrian agriculture associated with drought and conflict using multi-source remote sensing
   
• Alan Grainger, University of Leeds, UK
  Multi-Source Options for Monitoring Desertification
   
• Hanna Huryna, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Sharpening land surface temperature over vineyards using Sentinel platforms

Assessing emerging health risks in water: Drylands and beyond

Conveners:  Jacob Moran-Gilad and Osnat Gillor

Seminar Room Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (Building # 14)  

• Jacob Moran-Gilad, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Introduction
   
• Ruth Herschberg, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
  Adaptation to Prolonged Resource Exhaustion and the Antibiotic-Independent Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance
   
• Kornelia Smalla, Julius Kühn-Institut, Braunschweig, Germany.
  The transferable resistome in environmental bacteria – implication for dessert agriculture
   
• Nadav Davidovich, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
  From Anti-Microbial Resistance to Access to Water: Public Health, Water Policies and Health Equity in Israel
   
• Oded Swade, Mekorot Israel National Water Carrier.
  Microbial Water Quality in Israel and in Mekorot
   

• Zubaida Ezery .Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
  Inadequate Wastewater Infrastructure's Effect on the Health and Environmental the Bedouin Population in the Negev
   

   

• Sessions 14:30-16:30

  
  

Native and non-native trees in dryland afforestation

Convener:  Orna Reisman-Berman

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19) (14:30-16:30; 17:00-19:00)

• Eric Higgs, Department of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.

Novel and Designed Ecosystems.

• Tal Alon-Mozes, Technion, Israel

The cultural significance of the discourse on plant origins Natives and Non-native species in the designed landscapes of Israel. 

• Orna Reisman-Berman. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

A conceptual Framework for Dryland Afforestation: Increasing Ecosystem Services with Maintaining Ecosystem Integrity

• Yannai Zausmer. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Testing Invasiveness and Invisibility Potentials in Ziziphus Species. Candidates for Dryland Afforestation.
   
• Tamar Keasar, University of Haifa – Oranim, Israel
  Flowering phenology and pollinator visits in Ziziphus spina-christi, a desert forest tree
   
• Giovanni G. Vendramin, Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, National Research Council, Italy
  Molecular markers, population genomics and adaptation to climate changes of forest tree species
   
• José Grünzweig. Agriculture Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel
  Ecosystem process in Native and non-Native Forests
   
• Tamir Klein, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
  Cambial growth in hyper-arid acacia coincides with the hot, dry summer
   
• Hagar Fox, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel

Transcriptome and hormone profiling coupled with physiological response during drought stress and recovery in Pinus halepensis

• George Ogendi. University, Egerton, Kenya

Rangeland Rehabilitation Using Natural Regeneration and Dryland Afforestation Techniques at Chemeron, Baringo County,

• Stefan Leu, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Local and global implications of forestation mediated ecosystem restoration in

degraded arid farmland

On-site sanitation, wastewater treatment and reuse

Convener:  Amit Gross

Seminar Room Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (Building # 14)

• Claire Quinn, Natural Resources Management, Deputy Director, University of Leeds
  Knowledge and framework perspectives for uptake of agricultural innovation: agro-waste operations in dryland systems
   
• Eran Friedler, Technion, Israel
  On-site sanitation, opportunities, risks and interactions with existing infrastructure
   
• Peter van der Steen, Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Technology, The Netherlands
  Photo-Activated Sludge: efficient wastewater treatment and resource recovery in relatively simple photo-bioreactors
   
• Nader Al Khatib, WEDO, Palestinian Authority
  Wastewater Status in Palestine
   
• Yoram Gerchman, Samer Kalbouneh, Abeer Albalawneh, Hassan Azaizeh,
  Oranim College and University of Haifa, BERC, PA; NCARE, Jordan; The Galilee Society and Tel Hay College, Israel
  Combining constructed wetlands with low-cost UV systems for efficient water reuse
   
• Yuval Alfiya,  Friedler Eran, Gilboa Yael, Cheruti Uta, Dubowski Yael., Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, Israel.
  Removal of emerging micropollutants from greywater using vacuum-UV/UV-C flow-through photoreactor – Triclosan as a case study
   
   

Remote sensing: tools and implications in dryland

Convener: Arnon Karnieli

Seminar Room (Building # 9) (14:30-16:30. 17:00-19:00)

• Jisung Chang, Technion, Israel

Polarimetric Radar Parameters for Ecological Pattern Properties in Desert Fringe Ecosystems

• Chana Sara Ivgi, Temple University, USA
  Quantifying changes in connecting along a shrub-grass ecotone using LiDAR: Implications for desertification control
   
• Sinkyu Kang, Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, South Korea
  Regional factors of climate-induced massive livestock loss (Dzud) in nomadic pasture landscapes of Mongolia: a satellite-based assessment
   
• Hannelore Kusserow, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany
  Desertification and Re-greening in the African Sahel – A matter of the observation period?
   
• Tarin Paz-Kagan, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel
  Landscape-scale Variation in Canopy Water Content of Giant Sequoias during Drought
   
• Offer Rozenstein, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel
  Diurnal Emissivity Dynamics in Active Sand Dunes vs. Dunes Stabilized by Biocrust
   
• Micha Silver, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Vegetation damage after the Ashalim dam breach: a remote sensing approach
   
• Shahar Weksler, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  Mapping quartz content of soil surface using airborne hyperspectral remote sensing in the longwave-infrared region
   
• Silas Osinde, The Directorate of Resources Surveys and Remote Sensing, Kenya
  Participatory Three Dimensional Mapping (P3DM) Modeling as a tool for biodiversity monitoring: Application of Indigenous Knowledge and GIS Technology
   

Fairy circles as a self-organization phenomenon 

Convener:  Ehud Meron

Seminar Room Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Building (Building # 24) (14:30-16:30; 17:00-19:00)

• Yuval Zelnik, Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, CNRS – Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, France

Gradual Regime Shifts in Namibian Fairy Circles

• Nichole Barger, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
  The role of soil resources and wildlife grazing in the maintenance of fairy circles
   

• Mike Cramer, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  The role of aeolian processes in generating landscape nutrient heterogeneity associated with long-term vegetation patterning
   

• Stephan Getzin, Department of Ecosystem Modelling, University of Goettingen, Germany
  Self-organized fairy circles versus common termite circles: the differences in spatial patterns matter!
   
• Sujith Ravi, Temple University, Philadelphia USA
  On the ecohydrologic interactions within “fairy circles" in the Namib Desert
   
• Efrat Sheffer, The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebew University, Israel
  Causes and consequences of multi-scale regular vegetation patterns in drylands
   
• Olfa Jaibi, Institute of Mathematics, Leiden University, The Netherlands
  Mathematical Tales of Fairy Circles
   
• Valaire Yatat, Cameroon, Department of Mathematics, University of Yaounde, Cameroon
  Modelling boundary dynamics in vegetation mosaics experiencing fire events as travelling waves
   
  

Practice and theory of combating desertification in rural areas

Convener:  David Mutekanga and Wanjira Matthai

Class Room No. 1 (Building # 48)

• David Mutekanga, African Rural University, Uganda

The practice of the three masteries: creative processes, systems thinking and sustainable development based on the visionary approach in leaving in rural drylands: the case of Kagadi District, Uganda.

• Wanjira Mathai, wPower Project, Kenya
  Landscape Restoration and Renewable Household Energy
   
  
• Jane M. Mutune, University of Nairobi, Kenya
  Social-Economic Dimensions of Kenyan Smallholder Based Agriculture and Food Security: Gender and Generational Aspects of Sustainable Intensification
  
   
• Tefera Mengistu Woldie, National Coordinator, Forest Sector Development Program, UNDP/Ministry of  Environment, Forest and Climate Change of Ethiopia

• 
  Basit Afzal, Sher-E Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Faculty of Horticulture, Division of Agricultural Engineering, India

• 
  Wisam Sedawi, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  Place-based environmental education through the scientific observation of birds: reflections from a Bedouin student's perspective.
   
  
  
  

  Sessions 17:00-19:00

Plant nutrition under abiotic stress

Conveners: Uri Yermiyahu and Ran Erel

Class Room No. 1 (Building # 48)

• ^1,2Philip J. White, ³Martin R. Broadley, ⁴Hamed A. El-Serehy, ¹Timothy S. George, ^1,3Konrad Neugebauer
  ¹Ecological Science Group, The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee UK; ²Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program, King Saud University, Riyadh Saudi Arabia; ³Plant and Crop Sciences Division, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, UK; ⁴Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
  Effects of Drought and Salinity on the Functional Ionome of Plants
   
• Asher Bar-Tal^*1, Beeri Kanner^1,2, Daniel Kurtzman¹, Escain Kiwonde^1,2, Krishna Kumar Choudhary^1,3, Ido Nitsan¹
  ¹ Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO);² The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Food Agriculture and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot;
  ³ Centre for Plant Sciences, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India
  Does Chloride Concentration Influence Plant Response to Nitrogen Fertilization

• Erel R^1,2., A. Dag¹, A. Schwartz², A. Ben-Gal¹, U. Yermiyahu¹

¹Agricultural Research Organization, Gilat Research Center; ²Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ISRAEL.

Potassium and sodium levels mitigates photoinhibition by increasing carbon assimilation and respiration

• Moshe Halpern¹², Uri Yermiyahu¹, Asher Bar-Tal³, Nitsan Lugassi⁴, Aiman Egbaria⁴, David Granot⁴.

¹ Gilat Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel,² Department of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Environment and Food Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot,,³ Department of Soil Chemistry, Plant Nutrition and Microbiology, Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences;  ⁴Department of Vegetable Research, Institute of Plant Sciences, Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Rishon LeZion, Israel

The role of limited N uptake and assimilation in photosynthetic acclimation to elevated CO2 in tomato plants

• Hagai Yasour and Dan Hamus Cohen,
   Agricultural Research Organization, Israel
  Plant nutrition as a tool for improving vegetable crops performance under heat stress conditions
   
• Nirit Bernstein, The Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Israel
  Environmental and nutrition effects on production and secondary metabolite profile in medical cannabis

8th November, 2017

Sessions 8:30-10:30

Vineyard-environment interactions

Conveners:  Nurit Agam

Seminar Room (Building # 9)

• William P. Kustas, USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab, USA

The Grape Remote sensing Atmospheric Profile and Evapotranspiration eXperiment (GRAPEX): A Multidisciplinary Project to Develop a Robust Remote Sensing-based ET Modeling Tool for Vineyards

• Lawrence E. Hipps1, Sebastian Los1, John Prueger2, William Kustas3 and Joseph Alfieri3
  ¹Utah State University, Utah, USA, ²National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, Agricultural Research Services, US Dept. Agric., IA, USA , ^,3Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory,  Agricultural Research Services, US Dept. Agric., MD, USA
  Intermittency of Water Vapor Exchanges and Their Connection to ET and Microclimate in Irrigated Vineyards
   
• Guido D'Urso, Department of Agriculture, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
  Water status monitoring of vineyards by means of soil water and surface energy balance
   
• Paolo Sivilotti, University of Udine, Italy
  Fruit-zone microclimate manipulation: decoupling maturations in red and white grapevine varieties

Challenges and early lessons in implementing land degradation neutrality in Africa and worldwide

Conveners:  Luc Gnacadja and Alan Grainger

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19) 

• Liesl Wiese, Land and Water Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy

Building on success stories to achieve LDN

• Magda Lovei, Practice Manager, Africa, Environment & Natural Resources, Global Practice II, World Bank Group
  Development on Drylands: Challenges, Opportunities and Responses by the World Bank
   
• Alan Grainger, School of Geography, Leeds University, UK
  Conceptualizing Land Degradation Neutrality: Building on the State of the Art in Land Change Science
   
• Lindsay Stringer, University of Leeds, UK
  A new dryland development paradigm to advance land degradation neutrality, grounded in empirical analysis of dryland systems science
   
• Martin Dallimer, University of Leeds, UK
  A triage approach to achieving land degradation neutrality
   
• Alexander Erlewein, German International Cooperation (GIZ).
  Implementing Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN): from global target to local action 
   

Sessions 11:00-13:00

Viticulture practices in relation to climate

Conveners:  Naftali Lazarovitch

Seminar Room (Building # 9)

• Hochberg U¹, Windt CW², Ponomarenko A¹, Zhang YJ¹, Gersony J¹, Rockwell FE¹ and Holbrook NM¹

¹Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

²Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-2: Plant Sciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany

Using visualization techniques to explore the time scale of xylem embolism under drought

• Claudio Lovisolo, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy.

Scion x rootstock interaction controls grapevine adaptation to drought stress

• Yishai Netzer^1,2  Yair Hayat^1,2, Sarel Munitz^1,2, Dror Dotan^1,2, and Amnon Schwartz²

¹Eastern Region Research and Development Center; ²The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Environment, Israel.

Drought stress influences on physiology, xylem anatomy and wine quality parameters.

• Hodaya Brauner², Oshrit Rahimi¹, Elyashiv Drori¹
  Eastern R&D Center, Ariel;²Ariel University, Ariel, Israel.

Geographic distribution of Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris in Israel and the connection to water availability and soil salinity

• Michal Ackerman, Tavor Winery, Israel
  Challenges of Israeli wineries
   

Land Degradation Neutrality: From Concept to Implementation

Conveners: Pam Chasek and Barron J. Orr

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19)

• Uriel Safriel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

A brief history of the LDN process

• Barron J. Orr, Lead Scientist, UNCCD
  Learning by doing: Framing LDN scientifically and assisting countries in setting targets.
   
• Pam Chasek, Professor, Department of Government, Manhattan College Innovative approaches to enabling financing of LDN
   
• Mariam Akhtar-Schuster, German Aerospace Center, Germany
  Challenges and opportunities in creating an enabling policy environment for implementing LDN
   
• Harifidy Rakoto Ratsimba, University of Antananarivo
  Implementing LDN in a developing country: The experience of Madagascar
   
• Anna Luise. ISPRA - Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale/Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research
  Implementing LDN in Italy
   
   

  Sessions 14:30-16:30

   

Vine molecular physiology and genetics

Convener:  Aaron Fait

Seminar Room (Building # 9)

• Zenoni S., Fasoli M., Dal Santo S., Amato A., Bertini E., Guzzo F., Tornielli GB., Pezzotti M Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy

Disclosing the Molecular Basis of the Postharvest Life of Grapevine Berry

• Osvaldo Failla, Luigi Mariani
  Università degli studi di Milano, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, Milan, Italy; Lombardy Museum of Agricultural History, Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy
  Viticulture and climate challenges: some progresses in research activities

• Etti Or and C. Zheng, Agriculture Research Organization, Israel
  ABA is a modulator of endodormancy release in grapevine buds

Silvia Carlin^1,2, Roberto Magri², Cesare Lotti², Urska Vrhovsek², Fulvio Mattivi^1,3*

¹ Department of Food Quality and Nutrition, Research and Innovation Centre, Foundation Edmund Mach (FEM) ;² Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine; ³ Center Agriculture Food Environment (CAFE), University of Trento, San Michele all'Adige, Italy

Aromatic complexity of two premium wines revealed by gas chromatography combined to olfactometry and mass spectrometry

Enhancing Food Security, Adaptation to Climate Change and

Combating Desertification. MASHAV – 60 Years of Sharing Israel's Knowhow

George Evens Family Auditorium (Building # 19)

• Gil Haskel, Director MASHAV, Agency for International Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Introduction

• Nina Lehmann, Agricultural Development Cooperation in Africa, Training Programs and Environment, CINADCO, Israel Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
  Agricultural Development in Africa
   
• Moshe Broner, NevaTeam Agricultural Applications Ltd, Israel
  Assimilating Modern Irrigation Technologies in Developing Regions
   
• Uri Yermiyahu, Gilat Research Center, ARO – Israel's Agricultural Research Organization
  Capacity Building: Insights from an Expert
   
• Anat Lowengart-Aycicegi, Agro-Ecology and Field Crops Division Extension Service, Ministry of Agriculture, Israel

Adaptation to Climate Change and Knowledge Sharing – A Time Perspective