Events

Abstract: Our Laboratory focuses on research that drives technological, environmental and social change. It includes advanced technologies in the social aspect of environment management, embracing the complexity of the human-environment relationship, and physical model development for complex and non-trivial real-world problems in the era of climate change. Our ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between machine learning and geoscience for sustainability and environmental management at the national and international (mainly in the Mediterranean) scales. We understand that machine learning, in general, and deep learning, in particular, offer promising tools to build new data-driven models for Earth system components and thus build our understanding of ecosystems. Yet, accepting that data-driven machine learning approaches in geoscientific research cannot replace physical modelling but strongly complement and enrich it. Our primary scientific interests are developing hybrid approaches, coupling physical processes (physical laws and physics-domain-specific knowledge) with the versatility of data-driven machine learning, also known as physics-aware machine learning, to better understand the ecosystems, biodiversity, dynamic processes and environmental responses to stressors, and emphasizing sustainability and decision support system development aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: causal relationships between evolution and oxygenation of the ocean are vigorously debated. At the heart of these uncertainties are inconsistencies among reconstructed timelines for the rise of O2 in marine habitats. Attempts to reconstruct the timing of marine oxygenation are often based on redox-sensitive geochemical proxies that are prone to post-depositional alteration. Thus, developing new proxies, more resistant to such alteration, is an important direction forward for constraining major changes in atmospheric and marine oxygen levels. Here, we utilize U–Pb dating in dolomite to reconstruct their (re)crystallization ages and initial 207Pb/206Pb ratios; we find that they are systematically younger and lower than expected, respectively. These observations are explained by the resetting of the U–Pb system long after deposition, followed by further evolution in a closed system. Initial 207Pb/206Pb ratios have decreased from expected terrestrial values in the interval between deposition and (re)crystallization, consistent with U decay, and can therefore be used to reconstruct the initial 238U/206Pb ratios during deposition. Within our dataset initial 238U/206Pb ratios remained low in Proterozoic to mid-Paleozoic samples and increased dramatically in samples from the late-Paleozoic–early- Mesozoic Eras. This rise is attributed to a higher ratio of U to Pb in seawater that in turn influenced the fluid composition of carbonate crystallization sites. Accordingly, we interpret the temporal shift in initial 238U/206Pb ratios to reflect a late-Paleozoic increase in oxygenation of marine environments, corroborating previously documented shifts in some redox-sensitive proxies. This timeline is consistent with evolution-driven mechanisms for the oxygenation of late Paleozoic marine environments and with suggestions that Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic animals thrived in oceans that overall and on long time scales were oxygen-limited compared to the modern ocean. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Seismic waves excited by human activity frequently obscure signals due to tectonic processes and are discarded as a nuisance. Seismic noise-field analysis is, however, a powerful tool for characterizing anthropogenic activities. In this talk, I will briefly review the seismological fingerprints of anthropogenic noise sources and then present a scheme devised to identify precursory activity leading to the October 7 terrorist attack. The precursory activity in Gaza included massive mobilization, documented by multiple media outlets. Favorable conditions arose due to a temporary lack of anthropogenic activity in Israel, allowing remote seismic stations to record signals due to Gaza vehicle traffic in the early hours of Oct. 7. Seismogram analysis reveals a widespread signal that abruptly emerged above the nighttime noise levels about 20 minutes before the attack began. Statistical analysis suggests the signal is highly anomalous; tests for significance indicate that pre-attack inter-station correlations would emerge by chance only once every 18,000 years. Tripartite array analysis was used to detect surface waves, locate their sources, and demarcate the extent of preattack activity within the Gaza Strip. The signal’s amplitude, frequency, and spatiotemporal distribution appear to be aligned with vehicular traffic emanating from the south-central region of the Gaza Strip and extending towards its peripheries in the half-hour window preceding the invasion. This provides valuable tactical information and suggests embedding seismic noise-field analysis into decision-making protocols could enhance preparedness for terrorist attacks. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Climate change is having an impact on agricultural production and food security. Rising temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and extreme weather events can reduce crop yields, sometimes dramatically. However, climate change can also offer new opportunities, by generating more favorable climatic conditions for agricultural production in certain regions that were previously less productive. In order to assess the positive and negative impacts of climate change on agriculture and identify effective adaptation strategies, scientists have produced massive amounts of data during the last two decades, conducting local experiments in agricultural plots and using models to simulate the effect of climate on crop yields. In most cases, these data are not pooled together and are analyzed separately by different groups of scientists to assess the effects of climate change at a local level, without any attempt to upscale the results at a larger scale. Yet, if brought together, these data represent a rich source of information that are relevant to analyze the effect of climate across diverse environmental conditions. The wealth of data available has led to the emergence of a new type of scientific activity, involving the retrieval of all available data on a given subject and their synthesis into more robust and generic results. In this talk, I review the statistical methods available to synthesize data generated in studies quantifying the effect of climate change on agriculture. I discuss both the most classic methods - such as meta-analysis - and more recent methods based on machine learning. In particular, I show how this approach can be used to map the impact of climate change on a large scale (national, continental and global) from local data. I illustrate these methods in several case studies and present several research perspectives in this area. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Microorganisms play a crucial role in the weathering processes that transform rock into soil through chemical and physical mechanisms essential for nutrient cycling, nitrogen fixation, carbon storage, and organic matter decomposition. This intricate relationship between microbial life and landscapes forms the backbone of ecosystem dynamics and biogeochemical processes. Microbes influence rock weathering and soil production, adapting to their surroundings and creating distinct communities across various landscapes. These complex interactions and feedback mechanisms are pivotal to understanding the co-evolution of microbial communities and landscapes over time. However, existing research on microbial contributions to weathering and soil production has predominantly focused on relatively short timescales and small spatial scales. Understanding the interplay between the evolution of microbial communities and their role in weathering processes over geomorphic timescales within transient landscapes is important for a more complete understanding of how landscapes evolve as well as the impact of geomorphic changes on microbial community establishment and evolution. The main objective of this study is to elucidate the long-term dynamics of microbial communities and their role in weathering processes over millennial timescales. To achieve this, we focused on recently deglaciated basins in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA, examining bacterial community composition in three phases of the weathering process: exposed rock at the surface, saprolite—the weathered rock found beneath soil, and soil. Sampling along an elevational transect, we collected 25 samples of rock, soil, and saprolite, and evaluated their bacterial composition using 16S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing. Results show that both soil and saprolite samples exhibited diverse and similar microbial communities, indicating a developmental relationship between these habitats despite distinct geochemical compositions. In contrast, rock habitats are less diverse, and their composition resembles those of young deglaciated landscapes. Our findings point to a link between microbial community composition and rock-to-soil weathering processes, suggesting that the majority of weathering processes occur within the soil column (saprolite and soil), with exposed rock maintaining a steady state. The stability of these microbial communities over extended timescales suggests a potentially significant role for microbial weathering in landscape evolution. This finding underscores the importance of considering microbial contributions in future geomorphic studies, as they may play a key role in shaping the Earth's surface. Moving forward, we plan on coupling a long-term, landscape-scale geomorphic perspective with 'omics approaches from microbial ecology to comprehensively understand the complex relationships between microbial life and landscapes, ultimately advancing our knowledge of ecosystem dynamics and health. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Aerosol-cloud interactions are extensively studied to understand the climatic effect of anthropogenic aerosols, as the latter can change the radiative properties of clouds. Despite the clear presence of different cloud morphologies (i.e., the spatial variation of cloud thickness), the impact of aerosol-cloud interactions under different cloud morphologies is often overlooked. I will show that accounting for cloud morphology is essential for a better process understanding and for an accurate assessment of the radiative forcing due to aerosol-cloud interactions. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Flood is the outcome of complex processes interacting at a range of scales. Flood generation and its magnitude depend on different precipitation and surface properties. As the climate becomes warmer globally, precipitation patterns are changing and, consequently, altering flood regimes. Resolving the expected changes in flood properties requires examining projections of precipitation features most correlated with floods. While the redistribution of mean annual precipitation amounts is generally known, the trends in many other essential factors controlling floods are yet to be resolved. For example, flash flood magnitude is sensitive to space-time rainstorm properties such as areal coverage or storm speed. Still, knowledge of how these properties are affected by global warming is lacking. Maximal rain rates for duration relevant to the watershed’s response time are also crucial parameters controlling the flood discharge. There is some understanding of how extreme rain rates change, but the magnitude and sign depend on the rain duration considered. Changes in frequency and the intra-seasonal distribution of precipitation events also affect flood regimes. Finally, watersheds of different properties are sensitive to different precipitation features, and thus, different watersheds may respond differently to global warming. In this talk, we will present the complexity of flood response under global warming and then focus on two questions: 1) how does global warming affect heavy precipitation events (HPEs) in the eastern Mediterranean, and 2) how these effects are imprinted in the resulting floods in small-medium Mediterranean watersheds. We simulated 41 eastern Mediterranean HPEs with the high-resolution weather research and forecasting (WRF) model. Each event was simulated twice: under historical conditions and at the end of the 21st-century conditions (RCP8.5 scenario) using the “pseudo global warming” approach. Comparison of precipitation patterns from the paired simulations revealed that heavy precipitation events in our region are expected to become drier and more spatiotemporally concentrated, i.e., we expect higher rain rates on smaller coverage areas and shorter storm durations that, in total, yield lower amounts of rainfall. These effects have some contradicting signs, and their full hydrological impact on streamflow peak discharge and volume was further explored. Ensembles of spatially-shifted rainfall data from the simulated HPEs were input to a high-resolution distributed hydrological model (GB-HYDRA) representing four small-medium-size watersheds (18–69 km2) in the eastern Mediterranean (Ramot Menashe). Flow volume is significantly reduced in future HPEs, while the change in flood peak is more complicated due to the combined effect of precipitation amount (decreasing) and precipitation rate (increasing). For the watersheds examined in this research, which are mostly agricultural, flood peaks at the watershed outlets are mostly reduced. The dynamics of flood generation at sub-watersheds of different sizes and properties are further examined in this research to understand scenarios for lowering or increasing flood peaks. This study emphasizes that detecting and quantifying global warming impact on space-time precipitation patterns is essential for flood regime projection. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Located in a highly sensitive subtropical climate area and a densely populated area, Lake Kinneret is poised to undergo both natural and human-induced transformations in the coming decades. The lake is thermally stratified throughout most of the year and mixes thoroughly each winter when the epilimnion (upper layer) water temperature reaches equilibrium with the hypolimnion (bottom layer) water temperature by surface cooling and turbulence. Both the stratified and the fully mixed periods has a significant role in the Kinneret’s ecological system. Observation shows that air above the Lake is warming in a rate of 0.4oC/decade, while the epilimnion and hypolimnion are warming in a rate of 0.3oC/decade and 0.1oC/decade, respectively, for the last 50 years. Therefore, stratification strength and duration is anticipated to change and impact the lake’s ecosystem. Additionally, the sequence of drought periods and the expected future rise in water demands from Lake Kinneret formed the basis for the government's decision to channel desalinated water, via the natural course of the Tzalmon Stream, to the lake to ensure its operational functionality at high levels. Using a 3D hydrodynamic model forced by short and long-term forecasts the above scenarios are examined and analyzed. A simulation forced by regional atmospheric RCP4.5 climate change scenario spanning from 2010-2070 show continuous warming followed by abrupt cooling of the lake water around the year 2065. This result, presumably due to enhanced latent heat loss, suggest a restrain the dramatic anticipated change in the lake stratification. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Quantifying land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon-dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) is essential for evaluating carbonclimate feedbacks. Greenhouse gas satellite missions aim to provide global observational coverage of greenhouse gas concentrations and thus improve inversions of landatmosphere exchange fluxes. However, in key regions such as the humid tropics current missions obtain very few valid measurements. Leveraging recent advances in the global analysis of high-resolution optical imagery on cloudcomputing platforms and deep learning algorithms for cloud segmentation, we quantitatively diagnose the sources for low data yields in the tropics. We find that the main cause for low data yields are frequent shallow cumulus clouds. We find that increasing the spatial resolution of observations to 200 m would increase yields by 2–3 orders of magnitude and allow regular measurements in the wet season. Thus, the key to effective tropical greenhouse gas observations likely lies in regularly acquiring high-spatial resolution data. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: The sediment – bottom-water interface is suggested as a key control on the chemical composition of the ocean by studies of trace elements in the ocean water-column, yet data regarding trace element fluxes and interactions taking place in the top ten cm of abyssal sediments are scarce. To bridge this gap, I analysed the trace and major element composition of porewater and sediment of red-clay sediment from the abyssal North Pacific, and hydrothermally influenced sediment from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The top sediment at both study regions is aerobic, nevertheless, there is large variability in the porewater concentrations of many elements at the top five cm. The North Pacific red-clay sediment is a source of cobalt, nickel, copper, arsenic, vanadium and barium to the deep-ocean, the magnitude of these fluxes is consistent with fluxes calculated based on the water-column distribution of most elements, and are equivalent to the global supply of these elements by rivers. The hydrothermally influenced sediment is a strong source of copper, zinc and cobalt up to three km from the vent due to oxidation of sulfide minerals. Close to the vents, the sediment is high in iron oxyhydroxides that adsorb the oxyanions vanadate, arsenate and phosphate, acting as a sink for these elements. The results of this study highlight the importance of red-clay sediment in shaping the chemical composition of the ocean, and suggest an important role for hydrothermally influenced sediment in modulating the contributions of hydrothermal vents to ocean biogeochemistry. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: The impact of anthropogenic aerosols on clouds is a leading source of uncertainty in estimating the effect of human activity on the climate system. The challenge lies in the scale difference between clouds (~1-10 km) and general circulation and climate (~1000 km). To address this, we utilize three different novel sets of simulations that allow to resolve convection while also including a epresentation of large-scale processes. Our findings demonstrate that aerosol-cloud interaction intensifies tropical overturning circulation. Employing a weak temperature gradient approximation, we attribute variations in circulation to clear-sky humidity changes driven by warm rain suppression by aerosols. In two sets of simulations accounting for sub-tropical-tropical coupling, we show that aerosol-driven sub-tropical rain suppression leads to increased advection of cold and moist air from the sub-tropics to the tropics, thus enhancing tropical cloudiness. The increased tropical cloudiness has a strong cooling effect by reflecting more of the incoming solar radiation. The classical “aerosol-cloud lifetime effect” is shown here to have a strong remote effect (sub-tropical aerosols increase cloudiness in the tropics), thus widening the concept of cloud adjustments to aerosol perturbation with important implications for marine cloud brightening. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: The use of SOM in atmospheric science has grown popular over the recent years. The SOM's strength lies in its ability to project the continuum of a given dynamical system to an easily understood spectrum of dominant states. The SOM relies on a neural network, where each grid-point in each node (cluster) is assigned with a specific weight for a given input parameter. The SOM then operates competitively, shifting individual members between the nodes to minimize internal node variability while maximizing the distances between the nodes. Here, two novel SOM applications are demonstrated, recently used to classify Mediterranean cyclones from an upper-level PV perspective. Each approach yields the potential to enhance the understanding of different aspects of Mediterranean cyclone's predictability and is readily applicable to other regions of interest. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Terrestrial sequestration of carbon has mitigated ≈30% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. However its distribution across different pools—live or dead biomass, and soil and sedimentary organic carbon— which has important implications for future climate change mitigation, remains uncertain. By analyzing global observational datasets of changes in terrestrial carbon pools, we are able to partition carbon that has been sequestered on land between 1992-2019 into live biomass and non-living organic carbon pools. We compare our observation-based estimates against predictions of global vegetation models and identify key processes that are not included in most models that can help align the models with observations. We find that most terrestrial carbon gains are sequestered as non-living organic matter, and thus more persistent than previously appreciated, with a substantial fraction linked to human activities such as river damming, wood harvest, and garbage disposal in landfills. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Sub-seasonal forecasting aims to predict the mean weather conditions on weekly time-scales 2-6 weeks ahead. In the midlatitudes, lLarge-scale, quasi-stationary, recurrent, and persistent flow patterns, so-called weather regimes, explain sub-seasonal weather variability in the European region. However, forecast skill and predictability for regimes are mostly very poor on sub-seasonal forecast horizons. In this presentation we shed light on how synoptic-scale processes, affect the predictability and forecast skill of North Atlantic-European weather regimes. We focus on the upper-tropospheric divergent outflow due to latent heat release in ascending air streams, so-called warm conveyor belts (WCBs). We find evidence that a misrepresentation of diabatic WCB outflow at onset of regimes characterised by blocking anticyclones is likely the cause for vanishing regime skill on sub-seasonal time scales. At the same time results suggest that a correct representation of WCB activity might be a window of forecast opportunity for regimes. We further discuss how the occurrence of regimes is modulated by the state of the winter stratosphere and the MJO, which provide another window of forecast opportunity for weather regimes on sub-seasonal time scales. Interestingly, we find again that WCB activity related to synoptic-scale weather systems modulate the MJO teleconnections towards North America and Europe. We conclude that knowledge about physical and dynamical processes on synoptic scales is key for exploiting the potential windows of forecast opportunity for weather regimes on sub-seasonal time scales. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Tsunami events in antiquity had a profound influence on coastal societies. Six thousand years of historical records and geological data show that tsunamis are a common phenomenon affecting the eastern Mediterranean coastline. However, the possible impact of older tsunamis on prehistoric societies has not been investigated. Here we report, based on optically stimulated luminescence chronology, the earliest documented Holocene tsunami event, between 9.91 to 9.29 ka (kilo-annum), from the eastern Mediterranean at Dor, Israel. Tsunami debris from the early Neolithic is composed of marine sand embedded within fresh-brackish wetland deposits. Global and local sea-level curves for the period, 9.91–9.29 ka, as well as surface elevation reconstructions, show that the tsunami had a run-up of at least ~16 m and traveled between 3.5 to 1.5 km inland from the palaeo-coastline. Submerged slump scars on the continental slope, 16 km west of Dor, point to the nearby “Dor complex” as a likely cause. The near absence of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A-B archaeological sites (11.70–9.80 cal. ka) suggests these sites were removed by the tsunami, whereas younger, late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B-C (9.25–8.35 cal. ka) and later Pottery-Neolithic sites (8.25–7.80 cal. ka) indicate resettlement following the event. The significant run-up of this event highlights the disruptive impact of tsunamis on past societies along the Levantine coast. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: Mantle fluids are the primary carriers of key volatile elements that make the Earth’s long-term planetary habitability possible. The interaction of such volatile-rich fluids with the mantle rocks, especially the sub-cratonic lithospheric mantle leads to alteration of the mantle as well as its melting. High-density fluids encased inside diamonds are the best natural representation of mantle fluid compositions, suggesting their compositions are saline, silicic or carbonatitic. However, the origin and role in the mantle as well as their role in altering the mantle are still unclear. In my research, we approach these questions by experimentally simulating the interaction of volatile-rich fluids with mantle rocks at known pressure and temperature relevant to the mantle. Examining different mixtures of volatiles (H2O and CO2) and mantle rocks (peridotite and eclogite), we attempt to understand the origin of each type of fluid found in diamonds as well as study the effect of such interaction on the mantle chemistry and mineralogy. Compiling many experimental studies reveals that fluids ranging from silicic to low-Mg carbonatitic are formed in systems of eclogite+H2O+CO2, the more CO2 in the system, the more carbonatitic the fluid is. Fluids ranging from low-Mg carbonatitic to high-Mg carbonatitic in nature are the results of the formation of fluids in the peridotite-H2O-CO2 system. The more CO2 in the system, the more high-Mg carbonatitic the fluid composition is. These results suggest that the various fluids found in the mantle result from changes in the bulk composition of the mantle rocks. The mantle rocks are significantly affected during percolation of such fluids through them. For example, experimentally interacting silicic fluid with peridotite demonstrated the formation of various metasomatic peridotites as a function of pressure and temperature, composing of amphibole and mica. The mineral assemblages, chemistry, and P-T conditions in the experiments are similar to those found in metasomatic xenoliths from Kimberly, South Africa, and surrounding localities. Close abstractClose abstract

Abstract: In recent decades, various temperature proxies have been developed and further established in the scientific community, at both low and high accuracy, however, not every method can be applied without restriction to all minerals or rocks. Evaporitic rocks, for example, are abundant chemical sediments at the Earth's surface that are deposited from supersaturated brines in marine, terrestrial, and lacustrine environments. Halite is the most abundant rock-forming mineral in this group, which during crystal formation entraps tiny water droplets (fluid inclusions, FIs) that store the chemical composition of the parent brine at a specific pressure-temperature dependent density. Such FIs are therefore excellent records of the original physicochemical conditions of the source brine. Brillouin spectroscopy (BS) is a novel laser-based technique that uses density fluctuations in FIs to directly measure entrapment temperatures and thus the initial brine temperature during crystal growth. In this seminar, the BS method will be introduced and two application cases will be presented using salt layers from the Dead Sea which were deposited during two interglacial periods. In addition to the basic principles, both the recommended sampling strategy and pitfalls along with associated limitations will be presented. The conclusion will be that the salt layers commonly deposited in the Dead Sea basin consist of two types that formed preferentially in summer (coarse-grained crystals) and winter (fine-grained crystals), which is mainly controlled by the degree of salt saturation of the lake water. Furthermore, it will be shown how (1) lake bottom temperatures have fluctuated seasonally (summer/winter), and that (2) paleo temperature trends can be reconstructed for an entire halite layer that was deposited during holomictic periods in the Dead Sea basin. This method is particularly promising for evaporites that formed near the surface if the material has not been affected by external processes such as tectonic burial/uplift, erosion, or mineral replacement. Close abstractClose abstract