Soil physics and irrigation

The lab aims at increasing agricultural productivity while maintaining a sustainable environment through optimal fertigation scheduling. This approach is supported through numerical and analytical modeling, as well as measurement and interpretation of water flow, solute and heat transport in the soil-plant-atmosphere system.
Our research is orientated towards arid and semi-arid rural regions in general and the Israeli Negev in particular. The research combines low-input agro-techniques with greenhouse-protected high value crops irrigated with high frequency drip irrigation, using the most advanced technologies. The overall goal is to use environmental conditions typical to arid regions (high solar
radiation, low relative humidity, extreme day and night temperatures, wide open lands, marginal water quality) to improve the welfare of people living in these regions, in both developing and developed countries.
Irrigation studies conducted by our lab focus on regulated deficit application of water and nutrients. The key research question addressed is how do various irrigation regimes interact with different physiological stages? Our main assumption is that while reducing the amount of water applied, the stomata opening will decrease, followed by reduced transpiration with only a slight influence on photosynthesis.

Equipment (significant):
Rotating lysimeter system
ICP
Minirhizotron
Chloridometer
Leaf-Level Gas Exchange & Fluorescence (Li-6800)
Thermal Camera
Micropam