​In recent years we have been witnessing a large-scale invasion of many alien tropical species into the Eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, termed Lessepsian invasion. This process is promoted both by the ongoing warming of sea surface temperature (SST) in the last decades, and the establishment of hyper-oligotrophic conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean as a result of closure of the Nile River by the High Aswan Dam. Our access to both Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean provides an unmatched opportunity to investigate the scale and magnitude of the Lessepsian invasion and to understand its effect on the marine coastal ecosystems.

Our studies on this phenomenon focus on several species of larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) that are indicative to tropical and subtropical regions and serve as an excellent biomonitoring tool for the marine ecosystems of these environments.
Our studies involve manipulative experiments and transcriptome analyses that allow to identify physiological traits that facilitate the successful establishments of LBF in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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​​Collaboration:
Orit Hyams-Kaphzan
Ahuva Almogi-Labin (GSI)
Jan Pawlowski
Maria Holzmann (Geneva)
Uri Abdu (BGU)
Michal Kucera (Marum, Germany).​​

These studies had been supported by the ISF and the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure ​and recently by BMBF-MOST (2018-2021)​