Theme Group #4
Sponsored by
The Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research

The Desert Ecosystem

The Negev sits in the center of a vast desert region, extending from the Sahara to the Gobi desert. Its striking sands and rock formations are dotted with the ruins of ancient cities, agricultural settlements, nomadic bedouin sheepherders, and military bases. Spring and fall, the skies and fields are filled with millions of birds including gangly storks, bee eaters and tiny warblers migrating between Europe and Africa.

Those on foot get the best view - that of elaborate plant and animal communities. From the delicate desert tulips and tiny scorpions to the rock-climbing ibex, its inhabitants use complex survival strategies, dramatically different from those needed in semiarid and humid environments

Both the hiker and the ecologist can’t help but wonder: .

• Who and what lives in this harsh, windswept environment?

• How do they survive the harsh conditions?

• How delicately balanced is desert life?

• How did the ancient Nabataeans thrive here when no one else could?

In this fascinating, hands-on workshop, participants will learn how the desert ecosystem works by studying the flora, fauna and climatic features at two distinct desert study sites.

After making detailed energy measurements of the many features of both micro- and macroenvironments, they will place the components into an ecosystem model to see how the model is balanced.

In addition to gaining an appreciation for how the desert ecosystem works, participants will come out of the study with a balanced energetics model of the desert ecosystem that can be applied to other environments.

About the Workshop Leader

Yigal Granot is a senior biology and ecology teacher at the Environmental High School. Yigal has a M.Sc. in Zoology and Ecology.

Workshop developed in Partnership between Scientists and Teachers
The Desert Ecosystem Workshop is one of many programs developed in partnership between ecologists at the research institute and educators for use at the high school. While working with teachers, Professor Moshe Shackak, Ph.D., ecologist and educator at the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, created this workshop for the school using central principles of ecology.

Schedule

Sunday June 22
Morning and afternoon - Conference registration.
15:00-18:30 - Introduction to theme groups with field trip into the desert.
Evening - Opening ceremonies and dinner.

Monday June 23
5:00-11:00 - Introduction to study site #1 (flat desert plains) and and site #2 (rocky hillside environment). Start field study.
Afternoon and evening - Conference program.

Tuesday June 24
5:00-13:00 - Field study continues at both sites.
15:30 - 19:00 - Participants start to build models (indoors).
Evening - Conference program.

Wednesday June 25
8:15 -11:15 - Continue to build models.
17:00 - 19:30 - Field trip to Nahal Havarim.
Evening - Conference program.

Thursday June 26
8:30 -13:00 - Complete models.
15:00 - 17:30 - Theme group presentations.
Afternoon and evening conference program.

Friday June 27
Departure.
Optional two-day tours.

Due to intense midday heat, field trips are scheduled for early mornings and late in the day.

Israel’s Changing Views of the Desert

More than 50% of Israel is desert. Early pioneers (early 1900’s) viewed these seemingly barren lands as"obstacles to be dressed in cement".

Decades later, one of Israel’s founders,David Ben-Gurion, promoted the idea of conquering and greening the desert so it could absorb Israel’s growing population. Israel became famous for its desert agriculture technologies that allowed the "desert to bloom." Yet, these agricultural practices were often costly to the environment. The public was also willing to use the desert as a dumping ground for the country’s waste and as a place for its most hazardous industries.

Then in the mid-1900’s a handful of scientists, such as the late Professor Evanari, started to write and speak about the need to understand and preserve the desert environments. Today, many ecologists and educators (and organizations such as the Israeli field schools and the Society for the Protection of Nature) continue to bring the public’s attention to the desert’s beauty, its wonders and the need to protect it.