Publications
During the last few years more than 200 publications related to GLOWA Jordan River have been published either in peer reviewed journals or as books or book chapters. You can download the regularly updated list of publications: GLOWA JR publication list
Here our newest scientific publications:
Rotenberg E. & Yakir D. 2010: Contribution of Semi-Arid Forests to the Climate System.
Abstract. Forests both take up CO2 and enhance absorption of solar radiation, with contrasting effects on global temperature. Based on a 9-year study in the forests’ dry timberline, we show that substantial carbon sequestration (cooling effect) is maintained in the large dry transition zone(precipitation from 200 to 600 millimeters) by shifts in peak photosynthetic activities from summer to early spring, and this is counteracted by longwave radiation (L) supression (warming effect), doubling the forestation shortwave (S) albedo effect. Several decades of carbon accumulation are required to balance the twofold S + L effect. Desertification over the past several decades, however, contributed negative forcing at Earth’s surface equivalent to ~20% of the global anthropogenic CO2 effect over the same period, moderating warming trends.
Har-Edom O-L. & Sternberg M. 2009: Invasive species and climate change: Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronquist as a tool for assessing the invasibility of natural plant communities along an aridity gradient.
Abstract. The predicted reduction in precipitation in the eastern Mediterranean due to climate change may expose the natural plant communities to invasive species. We assessed whether natural plant communities along an aridity gradient in Israel were resistant to invasion by considering differences in abiotic conditions and community characteristics in these regions. We considered Conyza canadensis as a model plant as it is a common invader in the region. We examined the mechanisms and functional traits of both the plant communities and C. canadensis that promote or discourage invasion. Study sites represented a rainfall gradient with four ecosystem types: mesic Mediterranean, Mediterranean, semiarid and arid. Our results showed that the mechanisms of community invasion resistance varied along the aridity gradient. At the arid and semiarid sites, water deficiency impaired the establishment of C. canadensis. At the mesic Mediterranean site, plant competition had a negative effect on C. canadensis performance, thus greatly reducing the likelihood of its establishment. We conclude that a decrease in regional precipitation due to climate change may not affect intrinsic resistance characteristics of natural plant communities to invasion in the area.
Menzel et al. 2009: Modelling the effects of land-use and land-cover change on water availability in the Jordan River region.
Abstract. Within the GLOWA Jordan River project, a first-time overview of the current and possible future land and water conditions of a major part of the Eastern Mediterranean region (ca. 100 000 km2) is given. First, we applied the hydrological model TRAIN to simulate current water availability (runoff and groundwater recharge) and irrigation water demand on a 1 km×1 km spatial resolution. The results demonstrate the scarcity of water resources in the study region, with extremely low values of water availability in the semi-arid and arid parts. Then, a set of four divergent scenarios on the future of water has been developed using a stakeholder driven approach. Relevant drivers for land-use/land-cover change were fed into the LandSHIFT.R model to produce land-use and land-cover maps for the different scenarios. These maps were used as input to TRAIN in order to generate scenarios of water availability and irrigation water demand for the region. For this study, two intermediate scenarios were selected, with projected developments ranging between optimistic and pessimistic futures (with regard to social and economic conditions in the region). Given that climate conditions remain unchanged, the simulations show both increases and decreases in water availability, depending on the future pattern of natural and agricultural vegetation and the related dominance of hydrological processes.