Fragmentation is a key ecological process affecting biodiversity conservation, but also the provision of pest control and other services. Using fragmented landscapes we can study their flow through natural and cultivated habitats and examine the potential to pareto-optimize both goals. Using a combination of field observations and laboratory molecular methods we try to quantify the changes in ecological communities in and around the field, and the interactions between organisms which have implications for services such as pest control.

Open woodlands with low tree density are commonly found in open landscapes. They may differ from dense forests (more often studied) regarding their effects on biodiversity, because they maintain a wide variety of habitats, ranging from shaded areas under trees to open areas resembling grasslands and shrublands. The two later habitats have been declining  in Israel along with their specialist species, therefore managing open landscapes to support these species as well as higher biodiversity is an important conservation goal. We're looking for an enthusiastic MSc student to begin this fall (2023). 

Maintaining cover crops for soil retention and fertility is increasingly adopted by farmers, but we know little of how promoting flower-rich cover crops affects biodiversity and activity of pollinators in the orchards. Supplementing the orchard with flowering species may benefit bees and promote pollination services but it can also create competition with the crop and hamper pollination. 

Climate change is expected to affect flowering phenology of plants in our region but how will this affect their realtionship with their pollinator and the cultural value of wildflowers? Combining methods from ecology and social sciences we will try to explore the effects of climate change on flowers, pollinators and the cultural value of natural habitats. We're looking for an enthusiastic MSc student to begin this fall (2023). 

Regenerative agriculture promotes permanent soil cover and other practices to improve stability and resilience. Two major components affected by these practices are plants (including weeds and invasive plants) and arthropods (including many pests and natural enemies). We will explore how regenerative agriculture affects their communities, relationships, dynamics, and the services and disservices they provide.  We're looking for an enthusiastic MSc student to begin this fall (2023). 

Using cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness assessments can be a powerful tool to explore efficient actions and inform policy-makers. We wish to expand these tools to include additional services provided by conservation management, and to consider different farming systems to better understand what determines the success and economic feasibility of nature-friendly management.

Conservation management can in some cases be ‘win-win’ but we lack a lot of evidence and understanding for many crop types, services and species. We are studying how interaction between landscape properties, quality of management and species traits affect the trade-off between different services and disservices using experiments, field observations and syntheses.

Organisms provide important services to food production. These services can help increase yields, or save inputs (e.g. reduce pesticide applications), therefore they have economic value. We are interested in quantifying the value of these services and understand which factors increase or decrease this value and how.

We have accumulation evidence that some types of management can help support biodiversity. Yet, we mostly know this for small scales such as one site or field. A major challenge in conservation biology is developing methods to study and monitor the success of biodiversity friendly management at the scale of an entire landscape or region.