Naftali Lazarovitch

• Prof.
• Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Rising soil salinity threatens Mediterranean viticulture, yet the tipping point and the crosstalk between the physiological, metabolic, and ionic responses to salinity stress are not fully understood. The coordinated metabolic, ionic, and physiological response of Syrah grafted on Sélection Oppenheim 4 (SO4) rootstock was investigated under various...

Date palms are a cash crop and commonly irrigated using saline water. A better understanding of the processes involved in water use by date palms and their carbon budget is key to sustainable cultivation and saline irrigation scheduling. In this study, the process-oriented CoupModel was used to investigate the linked water and carbon fluxes in date...

Climatic factors strongly affect grapevine productivity and quality. In recent decades, global temperature increases of over 2 °C above pre-industrial levels have impacted phenology, yield, sugar accumulation, and harvest time, ultimately affecting wine quality. Heat stress (> 35 °C) for 3–5 consecutive days from high temperatures and excessive sol...

Soil salinity limits plant growth, affects crop production and nutrition, and endangers food security globally. The use of salt-tolerant rootstocks has proven to be an efficient strategy to alleviate the adverse effects of salinity in different crop species including Vitis vinferae. The long-term response to salinity of three grapevine rootstock va...

Root hairs are essential for nutrient uptake and plant-microbe interactions, playing a vital role in plant health and agricultural productivity. They extend from the surface of root cells, significantly increasing the root surface area, and constitute roughly 70% of the total root area. Given these advantages, detecting root hairs in scenes with lo...

Image-based root phenotyping technologies, including the minirhizotron (MR), have expanded our understanding of the in-situ root responses to changing environmental conditions. The conventional manual methods used to analyze MR images are time-consuming, limiting their implementation. This study presents an adaptation of our previously developed co...

Manual analysis of (mini-)rhizotron (MR) images is tedious. Several methods have been proposed for semantic root segmentation based on homogeneous, single-source MR datasets. Recent advances in deep learning (DL) have enabled automated feature extraction, but comparisons of segmentation accuracy, false positives and transferability are virtually la...

The arrangement of plant roots and their overall structure, known as root system architecture (RSA), plays an important role in acquiring water and nutrients essential for plant growth and development. Moreover, the RSA demonstrates remarkable adaptability to environmental stresses, making it a central factor in plant adaptation. Root traits, inclu...

The combined effects of salt stress and leaf age on photosynthesis and stomatal conductance are not fully understood. Salt stress develops at different rates in various plant organs and tissues, leading to osmotic and ionic stresses. We studied the development of salt stress (30 mM NaCl) in two grapevine rootstocks by examining the gas exchange, ph...

Minirhizotron technique (MR), an image-based root phenotyping technology, has expanded our understanding of in situ root responses to changing environmental conditions. However, the conventional manual approaches to capturing and analyzing images are time-consuming, thus constraining the size and frequency of sampling and interpretation. To address...

Accessing freshwater resources for agriculture becomes more complex due to increasing demands and declining water quality. Alternative water sources, such as saline water, require ad hoc solutions. Therefore, understanding roots' response to saline water is crucial for future agriculture. We examined the response of three grapevine rootstocks (Paul...

A reliable prediction of net radiation (Rn) inside naturally ventilated greenhouses is critical for accurate evapotranspiration evaluation and thus for water saving, considering that previous studies have indicated that evapotranspiration in such relatively decoupled greenhouses is predominantly controlled by greenhouse Rn (Rn-GH). We hypothesized...

The extent of the vertical microclimate heterogeneity inside a greenhouse is mostly unknown, and it can strongly affect plant production and yield quality. Tomato crop was grown in a semi-closed greenhouse equipped with horizontal ventilation and sidewall curtains, which were only opened depending on microclimate conditions; and a naturally ventila...

Purpose Accessing freshwater resources becomes more complex in arid and semi-arid areas due to increased demands and declining water quality. Alternative water sources for agriculture such as saline and recycled water are currently being used. A better understanding of roots' response to irrigation with saline water is crucial for future agricultur...

Optimization of nitrogen (N) fertigation is a formidable challenge involving complex interactions between water and N uptake and their effects on crop production. Numerical models can be useful in studying the interaction of multiple variables like those found in mechanistic simulations of N fertigation strategies. The physical aspects can often be...

Water stress is one of the main environmental constraints that directly disrupts agriculture and global food supply, thus early and accurate detection of water stress is necessary in order to maintain high agricultural productivity. Using an image dataset collected during a dedicated experiment, we propose a new method for water stress level classi...

Approximately 1 billion ha of the global land surface is currently salt-affected, representing about 7% of the earth’s land surface. Whereas most of it results from natural geochemical processes, an estimated 30% of irrigated lands globally are salt-affected through secondary human-induced salinization. Application of lower quality, alternative irr...

Grafting with different rootstocks may provide increased tolerance and yield, even under poor-quality irrigation conditions. We examined the effects of potato rootstock on physiology, dry mass, and yield of tomato scion in pots irrigated with saline water. Tomato (cv. Ikram), potato (cv. Charlotte) and grafted (cv. Ikram/Charlotte) plants were subj...

Aeroponic systems: A unique tool for estimating plant water relations and NO3 uptake in response to salinity stress. The study of transpiration, water, and nutrient uptake during abiotic stress in the root zone is hindered because of the hidden nature of the root zone. In this study, a modified aeroponic system was used to evaluate whole plant tran...

An integrated research coupling a field study with an agronomic-economic model (ANSWER-APP) was conducted to investigate the combined effects of irrigation levels and crop loads on fruit quality, water productivity and profitability of mature date palms. The study took place in Israel’s hyper-arid Arava Valley, where date palm trees are widely cult...

AimsDemonstrating the potential of MRI as a 3D, non-invasive and continuous measurement technique to map Na+ concentration distributions in soil and around roots.Methods Dissolved NaCl in soil and soil-plant systems was mapped by 3D 23Na-MRI. The lower limit of detectability in saturated and unsaturated porous media was evaluated, followed by evapo...

Non-invasive imaging technologies continue to rise in use; innovation of root and rhizosphere imaging devices has however not kept pace. The lack of automated, high-resolution root imaging and analysis hampers our scientific understanding and prevents application of minirhizotrons in agricultural and environmental settings. Two complementary automa...

The unlimited nitrogen (N) availability that has characterized crop production in the last few decades is accompanied by environmental burdens, including the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with fertilizer production, post-application nitrate (NO3–) pollution of water bodies, and emissions of reactive gaseous N forms into the atmosphere....

Suction cups are widely used in agricultural and environmental research and monitoring under the hypothesis that the sample chemistry represents the soil pore water solute composition around the cup location. The objective of this study was to analyze the sampling procedures that lead to the most representative sample for soil aqueous phase composi...

BACKGROUND Fertigation is a rare and an expensive method of fertilizer application to cassava, and hence there is a need to optimize its efficiency for profitability. This study's objective was to optimize root yield of cassava through fertigation using a logistic model. RESULTS The field treatments were six fertigation concentrations against thre...

Plants optimize water use and carbon assimilation via transient regulation of stomata resistance and by limiting hydraulic conductivity in a long‐term response of xylem anatomy. We postulated that without effective hydraulic regulation plants would permanently restrain water loss and photosynthetic productivity under salt stress conditions. We comp...

The use of minirhizotron (MR) imaging systems is gaining popularity, resulting in a large amount of collected images-which need efficient and accurate processing for root trait extraction. This study proposes a neural network-based solution for automatic measurement of root length in images taken by MR systems. Current root length measurement techn...

Minirhizotron (MR) imaging systems are key instruments to study the hidden half of plants and ecosystems, i.e. roots, mycorrhiza and their interactions with pathogens, fauna etc. in the rhizosphere. However, despite scarce data on the 'hidden half' of plants and ecosystems, e.g. needed for better understanding species' ecophysiology, breeding resou...

Aims (1) Monitoring ‘root-felt’ salinity by using rhizoslides as a non-invasive method, (2) Studying how transpiration rate, salinity in irrigation water, and root water uptake affect sodium distribution around single roots, (3) Interpreting experimental results by using simulations with a 3-D root system architecture model coupled with water flow...

In the published version of this editorial paper, the sentence in the first paragraph should be corrected as shown below.

Cassava (M. esculenta Crantz), feeding countless people and attracting markets worldwide, is a model for traditional crops that need physiology-based fertigation (fertilization through irrigation) standards in intensive cultivation. Hence, we studied the effects of 10 to 200 mg L⁻¹ nitrogen (N) fertigation on growth and yields of cassava and target...

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of phosphorus applied through fertigation on growth and root yield of cassava. This was achieved through a greenhouse pot-experiment consisting of 1, 4, 7, 10, 20 and 30 mg P L⁻¹. Increasing P from 1 to 30 mg P L⁻¹ realized a 57.1 and 150.0% increase in leaf blade P in 2014 and 2015, respectiv...

It is now assumed that crops in the field are mostly subjected to a combination of stresses, rather than a single stress alone. One kind of combination is salinity and chilling stress, which can occur simultaneously in open fields or non-heated greenhouses, mainly in arid and semi-arid lands. Non-destructive methods such as Rhizoslides can be used...

Background Grape leaves provide the biochemical substrates for berry development. Thus, understanding the regulation of grapevine leaf metabolism can aid in discerning processes fundamental to fruit development and berry quality. Here, the temporal alterations in leaf metabolism in Merlot grapevine grown under sufficient irrigation and water defici...

The cultivation of date palms in Israel’s Arava Valley, which is characterized by a high evaporative demand, is widespread and exclusively depends on high-frequency irrigation. Fruit sets are usually thinned early in their development to produce large, high-quality dates. However, no effort has yet been made to comprehensively examine fruit load ef...

Low temperature is a prominent limiting factor for tropical originated crops production in temperate regions, particularly during cool-season production. The diverse response of two rootstocks (Canon-sensitive and S103-tolerant to low root-zone temperature) was studied when exposed to aeroponically different temperature regimes at the root zone: co...

One of the major challenges in studying root-soil interactions is the lack of easy access to the rhizosphere and measurements in the root zone are often destructive to the roots. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as a 3D, noninvasive and continuous measurement technique to study the temporal development...

Narrow profit margins, resource conservation issues and environmental concerns are the main driving forces to improve fertilizer uptake, especially for potatoes. Potatoes are a high value crop with a shallow, inefficient root system and high fertilizer rate requirements. Of all essential nutrients, nitrogen (N) is often limiting to potato productio...

Core Ideas This special section has 15 contributions focused on physical and biochemical processes in the root zone. Contributions stem from presentations at the 2016 Kirkham conference in Sede Boqer Campus, Israel. The root system plays a key role in water, nutrient, and gas transport processes in the vadose zone. Novel measurement and modeling to...

Tomato yield is seriously affected by water stress. Paclobutrazol, a fungicide and plant growth retardant, has previously shown the potential to improve drought tolerance of crops. However, knowledge on the impact of Paclobutrazol on root system traits is scarce. Seeds of two tomato cultivars were primed with three different rates of Paclobutrazol...

Desalinated water reduces salt load and water needs in irrigation but lack hardness and sulfate ions required for optimal plant growth. Mixing with groundwater adds hardness but raises chloride and sodium levels limiting the amount of groundwater that can be used in the blend. Monovalent selective electrodialysis (SED) allows reducing chloride and...

Core Ideas High transpiration rates lead to larger osmotic stress. Osmotic stress is highly dependent on root length density. Sinusoidal potential transpiration leads to larger stress than constant transpiration. Design of efficient water irrigation strategies with a combination of high‐quality water and saline water relies on accurate prediction...

please find the article here https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/vzj/pdfs/0/0/vzj2017.02.0040 A root growth module was adapted and implemented into the HYDRUS software packages to model root growth as a function of different envi - ronmental stresses. The model assumes that various environmental factors, as well as soil hydraulic proper...

Growth rate is one of the indicators for a plant’s physiological condition. Date palms are characterized by high frond elongation rates, which are mainly subjected to drought and salinity stresses. Thus, continuous measurement of these rates can provide real-time growth information, for assessing water status within the soil-plant-atmosphere contin...

Potato is sensitive to excess or deficit irrigation and therefore requires the efficient use of water, especially in arid regions. Low-discharge drip irrigation has been suggested as an efficient irrigation method, providing an optimal amount of water and fertilizer directly to the root zone. However, field studies using a continuous irrigation sys...

Post-veraison water deficit is a common strategy implemented to improve fruit composition in many winegrowing regions. However, contrasting results are often reported on fruit size and composition, a challenge for generalizing the positive impact of this technique. Our research investigated the effect of water deficit (WD) imposed at veraison on Me...

Core Ideas Shoot and root interactions under extreme temperatures contributed to tolerance. Impact of root dynamics on soil pore water EC and Cl uptake increased under extreme temperatures. Tolerance of extreme temperatures increased assimilation and allocation of C and N to organ growth. Fluctuations of winter and summer and day and night tempera...

Abstract: Biochar has gained popularity as an amendment to improve soil hydraulic properties. Since biochar properties depend on feedstocks and pyrolysis temperatures used for its production, proper selection of biochar type as soil amendment is of great importance for soil hydraulic properties improvement. This study investigated the effects of ei...

This study attempts to improve the forecast skill of the evapotranspiration (ET 0 ) and Precipitation for the purpose of crop irrigation management over Israel using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. Optimized crop irrigation, in term of timing and quantities, decreases water and agrochemicals demand. Crop water demands depend on ev...

Two bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) cultivars, differing in their response to chilling, were exposed to three levels of root zone temperatures. Gas exchange, shoot and root phenology, and the pattern of change of the central metabolites and secondary metabolites caffeate and benzoate in the leaves and roots were profiled. Low root zone temperature si...

A common irrigation strategy is to replenish the soil water reservoir according to evapotranspiration (ET). However, the ET from plants under deficit irrigation is not well explored and is normally assumed to be a constant fraction of their respective well-watered condition. In the current experiment, we hypothesized that the ratio between the ET o...

Dwindling water resources combined with meeting the demands for food security require maximizing water use efficiency (WUE) both in rainfed and irrigated agriculture. In this regard, deficit irrigation (DI), defined as the administration of water below full crop-water requirements (evapotranspiration), is a valuable practice to contain irrigation...

The field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of drip irrigation treatments such as three lateral distances (0.6 m, 0.8 m or 1.0 m lateral distance) on growth parameters physiological characters, yield and water use of rice under two discharge rates drippers (0.6 or 1.0 litre per hour emitters). Among the lateral distances, 0.8 m lat...

Core Ideas Soil temperature gradients are important for soil (latent) heat flux estimation. Heat‐pulse sensor thermistors' temperature differences were on the order of 0.2°C. In situ calibration reduced uncertainty between thermistors to about 0.06°C. In situ calibrated offsets between thermistors were similar to laboratory results. Offsets were fo...

Roots play important roles in regulating whole-plant carbon and water relations in response to extreme soil temperature. Three foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) lines (448-Ames 21521, 463-P1391643 and 523-P1219619) were subjected to two different soil temperatures (28 and 38 °C). The gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, root morphology and cen...

Controlled experiments and modeling are crucial components in the evaluation of the fate of water and solutes in environmental and agricultural research. Lysimeters are commonly used to determine water and solute balances and assist in making sustainable decisions with respect to soil reclamation, fertilization or irrigation with low quality water....

Abstract Extreme temperature and drought stress are major environmental factors limiting agriculture worldwide. A comprehensive understanding of plant behavior under different environmental conditions can be gained through experiments and through the application of biophysical crop models. This study presents a field experiment conducted with bean...

In recent years, increased salinization of soils, along with the depletion of available water, has become a major threat for agriculture. The rhizosphere plays an important role in connecting processes at the soil-plant- atmosphere interface. A better understanding of these connections and their mutual influences can help in improving crop yield. N...

Irrigation is a service provided to agricultural crops in order to improve their yields. This is also a rare situation where the location of the costumers (roots) is not known and the heterogeneity in the water delivery system (soil) effects the water distribution. This non-uniformity of soil-plant conditions in the agricultural field complicates d...

Since most people without access to safe water services live in remote areas of developing countries, assessing the economics of rural water developments poses a globally pressing challenge. This study seeks to: (1) outline the rural (non-networked) water development decision process in a systematic way; (2) incorporate that process into a modeling...

During the summer, evaporative demand at midday often exceeds the transport capacity of most desert plants. However, date palms maintain their ecological dominance with sustained and uniquely high rates of transpiration. This high rate of flow cannot be attributed to soil water supply alone. In order to quantify intra-plant water allocation in irri...

Background and aims In the Central Negev hills (Israel) many ancient terraced wadis exist, which captured run-off and caused gradual soil aggradation, which enabled agricultural practices. In these terraces, dark colored soil horizons were observed, containing charcoal, as can be found in Terra Preta soils, suggesting higher fertility compared to n...

Synonyms Saline and saline-sodic soils; Solonchak soils Definition Salinity is the presence of soluble salts in soils or waters. It is a general term used to describe the presence of elevated level of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates in liquid phase of soil and in water. Introduction The natu...

Evaporation from the soil surface (E) can be a significant source of water loss in arid areas. In sparsely vegetated systems, E is expected to be a function of soil, climate, irrigation regime, precipitation patterns, and plant canopy development, and will therefore change dynamically at both daily and seasonal time scales. The objectives of this r...

Groundwater is often the most or only feasible safe drinking water source in remote, low-resource areas, yet the economics of its development have not been systematically outlined. We applied AWARE (Assessing Water Alternatives in Remote Economies), a recently developed Decision Support System, to investigate the costs and benefits of groundwater a...

Aims Soil salinity can cause salt plant stress by reducing plant transpiration and yield due to very low osmotic potentials in the soil. For predicting this reduction, we present a simulation study to (i) identify a suitable functional form of the transpiration reduction function and (ii) to explain the different shapes of empirically observed redu...

Irrigation of crops in arid regions with marginal water is expanding. Due to economic and environmental issues arising from use of low-quality water, irrigation should follow the actual crop water demands. However, direct measurements of transpiration are scant, and indirect methods are commonly applied; e.g., the Penman–Monteith (PM) equation that...

Irrigation water salinity effects on colour and health ingredients in the pomegranate peel were studied in two accessions, 'Wonderful' and 'SP-2', grown under a wide range of salinities, 1.2 to 9 dS m –1 . Ripe fruit peels were analysed for phenolics and anthocyanins composition, and antioxidative capacity. Total phenolics concentration and antioxi...

This paper presents an internally coupled flow and solute transport model for free-draining irrigation furrows. Furrow hydraulics is simulated with a numerical zero-inertia model and solute transport is computed with a numerical cross-section averaged advection-dispersion model. A procedure for integrating the furrow volumetric cumulative intake in...

Increased root zone oxygen by a capillary barrier is beneficial to bell pepper irrigated with brackish water in an arid region a b s t r a c t Limitations to growth and biomass production are expected under high (>30 • C) soil temperatures due to low soil oxygen levels and insufficient oxygen transport to roots. These limitations will be exacerbate...