Dror Minz, Ph.D

minz@volcani.agri.gov.il

Judith Cohen, Ph.D, Lab Manager

judith@volcani.agri.gov.il

Web Page

I study how various agricultural practices affect soil and root microbial community structure and function

Ada Viterbo, PhD, Project coordinator

adav@volcani.agri.gov.il

Agricultural soils are one of the main sources of nitrous oxide emissions, a potent greenhouse gas harmful to the environment. We are isolating nitrous oxide (N2O)-reducing bacteria from cereal rhizospheres in order to develop a new technology capable to minimize N2O emissions from soils.

David Dan Cohen, Ph.D candidate

daviddc@volcani.agri.gov.il

I study the banana rhizosphere microbiome in health and disease, aiming to find bio-pesticides against Panama disease which is the biggest banana threat worldwide. As well as to determine the change in microbial population in function of soil age in banana fields.

Alex Evenko, Ph.D candidate

Alex.evenko@mail.huji.ac.il

Isolating plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) from a wide variety of tomato species

Rona Ziskin, Ph.D candidate

ronitziskin@gmail.com

Nitrous oxide (N2O, known also as "laughing gas") is an important long-lived greenhouse gas, contributing substantially to global warming, and is also a major scavenger of stratospheric ozone. Large portion of N2O emission to the atmosphere comes from microbial activities in agricultural soils. My project aims at mitigating N2O emissions using special root bacteria isolated in our laboratory

Yisrael Ben Avraham, Ph.D candidate

yisrael.benavraham@mail.huji.ac.il

My research is examining how various ecological factors such as soil type, geography, climate, temperature, and amount of rainfall impact the microbiome of wild wheat relatives such as Aegilopes peregrina (goat grass) and Triticum diccocum (wild emmer) across various locations in Israel. Understanding the core microbiome of these wild grasses has the potential for practical applications in domesticated, agricultural wheat for support of growth under abiotic stresses.

Or Gross, Ph.D student

orgross3@gmail.com

I study plant-soil feedback in communities of wild plants in Israel. In my experiments, I establish artificial or semi-artificial plant communities that grow directly in the soil or in large containers. I use these experiments to understand what affects the species composition of plant communities and soil microbiome communities, and how they interact with each other. The experiments include different stressors that represent the effects of human behavior on natural grasslands - over-nitrification of the soil and removal of the above-ground plant biomass seasonally. These will allow us to test how we as humans indirectly shape the natural plant communities in our environment, and how eventually, it is the unseen underground microbiome that facilitates many of these processes. Field work is done at the experimental farm of the Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot, and at an LTER station in the south of Israel. The research is co-supervised by Dr. Niv DeMalach in the plant ecology aspect (HUJI), and Dr. Dror Minz in the soil microbiome aspect (ARO).

Omri Vardi Perlstein, researcher

omriv@volcani.agri.gov.il

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a highly potent greenhouse gas, affecting substantially on climate change while also damaging the atmospheric ozone layer.
Most of N2O emissions originate from agricultural soils. We are isolating N2O-reducing bacteria from cereal rhizospheres in order to harness the natural capability of these bacteria to minimize N2O emissions from soils.