Ofir Katz

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Verified

Ofir verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Senior Researcher at Dead Sea-Arava Science Center (DSASC)

Silicification in angiosperms is a phenomenon that has attracted increasing attention in recent years. It is now widely acknowledged that silicification has many benefits to angiosperms (Richmond and Sussman, 2003; Ma and Yamaji, 2008; Epstein, 2009; Guntzer et al., 2012), and that it probably plays appreciable roles at the ecosystem and landscape...

Phytoliths (silica bodies) occur in Poaceae species in large numbers and have been shown to have antiherbivory roles. However, phytoliths occur also in many other taxa in much smaller numbers, which raises the question of the extent of both their potential and actual antiherbivory role in these taxa. In order to address the question of their potent...

A rapid phytolith extraction procedure is described, that allows phytolith concentrations and morphotype assemblages to be analyzed within hours. This procedure enables the results of these analyses to be used during an archaeological excavation, in order to better understand how plants were used. The new procedure was tested using a standard phyto...

Plant chemical composition is a trait gaining increasing importance in plant ecology. However, there is limited research on the patterns and drivers of its variation among different plant functional groups and bioclimatic regions. We conducted an analysis of ionomes utilising X‐ray fluorescence on 83 plant species from four distinct functional grou...

Ecotypic differentiation, reflected in substantial trait differences across populations, has been observed in various plant species distributed across aridity gradients. Nevertheless, ecotypic differentiation in leaf silicon concentration, known to alleviate drought stress in plants, remained hardly explored. Here, we provide a systematic test for...

Silicon (Si) content in plant tissues is considered a functional trait that can provide multiple morpho‐physiological benefits to plant individuals. However, it is still unclear whether and how these individual benefits extend to plant community processes and ecosystem functioning. Here we investigated how plant Si content is associated with plant...

Arid environments are characterized by rare rain events that are highly variable, as a result of which plant populations often exhibit episodic recruitment and mortality dynamics. However, direct records and observations of such events are rare because of the slow development of woody species. In this study, we described how a decrease in annual pr...

Spatial heterogeneity affects plant community composition and diversity. It is particularly noticeable in annual plant communities, which vary in space and time over short distances and periods, forming meta-communities at the regional scale. This study was conducted at the coastal dune ecosystem in Nizzanim nature reserve, Israel. This study aimed...

Despite seminal papers that stress the significance of silicon (Si) in plant biology and ecology, most studies are focused on manipulations of Si supply and mitigation of stresses. The ecological significance of Si varies with different levels of biological organisation, and remains hard to capture. We show that the costs of Si accumulation are gre...

Economics, ecology and archaeology study various aspects of resource utilisation and mobilisation, differing in the studied systems, objects and currencies. However, the three disciplines have developed mostly independently, resulting in limited dialogue among them. Emergent fields such as ecological economics and environmental archaeology are now...

Purpose Silicon (Si) accumulation is an important strategy for plant defense against biotic and abiotic stress. Solid amorphous silica (ASi) deposits have been found to protect plants against different stressors (e.g., drought stress, ultraviolet radiation, herbivory, and pests). Most research on ASi deposits and their subsequent function is conduc...

Main conclusion The divergences in propagule mass have been more consistently associated with divergences in seed development duration or fruit pedicel cross-sectional area than with divergences in any other biotic factors. Abstract Allometry and Corner’s rule became an important theme in evolutionary biology of plant trait structure and function....

Plants’ ability to take up silicon from the soil, accumulate it within their tissues and then reincorporate it into the soil through litter creates an intricate network of feedback mechanisms in ecosystems. Here, we provide a concise review of silicon’s roles in soil chemistry and physics and in plant physiology and ecology, focusing on the process...

Propagule traits vary among biomes along geographical gradients such as longitude, but the mechanisms that underlie these variations remain unclear. This study aims to explore seed mass variation patterns of different biome types along a longitudinal gradient and their underlying variation mechanisms by involving an in-depth analysis on the variati...

In semi-arid and arid environments, clonal plants occasionally appear in ring patterns. There is a general agreement that this pattern forms when ramets grow radially, leaving a dead centre where the parent plant once was. Nevertheless, there is still some controversy over the actual causes of this dieback and how water source sink relations in and...

Artemisia monosperma Delile is a Saharo-Arabian dwarf shrub that grows on sandy soils along coasts and in deserts of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and southern Levant under semi-arid and arid climates. It is a key species in these regions, dictating landscape formation and facilitating other plants, arthropods, reptiles and small mammals by a...

In semi-arid and arid environments, clonal plants occasionally appear in ring patterns. There is a general agreement that this pattern forms when ramets grow radially, leaving a dead centre where the parent plant once was. Nevertheless, there is still some controversy over the actual causes of this dieback and how water source–sink relations in and...

Propagule traits vary among communities along geographical gradients such as longitude, but the mechanisms that underlie these variations remain unclear. This study aims to explore seed mass variation patterns of different community types along a longitudinal gradient and their underlying variation mechanisms by involving an in-depth analysis on th...

One method of controlling dune encroachment is afforestation, which may result in biodiversity loss because of habitat change and adverse effects of trees on ecosystem functioning. We carried out a study on the effects of planting discrete areas with Tamarix aphylla (L.) Karsten trees, over 50 years ago, in a semiarid dunefield in the northern Nege...

Herbivory is fundamental in ecology, being a major driver of ecosystem structure and functioning. Plant Si and phytoliths play a significant antiherbivory role, the understanding of which and of its evolutionary context will increase our understanding of this phenomenon, its origins, and its significance for past, extant, and future ecosystems. To...

Evolutionary history studies depend on having reliable chronologies of macroevolutionary processes. Construction of such chronologies often yields discrepancies between paleontological and molecular dates, which are sometimes viewed as conflicting. Nevertheless, each macroevolutionary process is composed of two main phases: emergence of a trait or...

Plant silicon (Si) content is a trait that has gained increasing attention in recent years, and is now often suggested to be a plant functional trait. This paper reviews the evidence that supports the inclusion of plant Si content within the plant functional traits framework. Plant Si contents can vary greatly among plant taxa and environments, ref...

Using a biographic-like approach, this article presents the initial results of the study of an elite Iron Age house at Tel ‘Eton, from its conception, through its birth and life, to its death and decomposition. Massive preparations preceded the construction of the house, and the latter incorporated continuous foundations, and quality building mater...

Background and aims: Angiosperms are the most species-rich group of land plants, but their origins and fast and intense diversification still require an explanation. Scope: Extending research scopes can broaden theoretical frameworks and lines of evidence that can lead to solving this 'abominable mystery'. Solutions lie in understanding evolutio...

The Levant's biogeographic setting also makes it a palaeobiologically significant location, as will be demonstrated here for the past 135 million years of plant evolution. Some of the earliest evidence for angiosperm diversification and dominance come from the Levant, and are possibly related to the environmental conditions in the region at the tim...

Plant communities differ in their fruit type spectra, especially in the proportions of fleshy and non-fleshy fruit types. However, which abiotic and biotic factors drive this variability along elevation gradient and what drives the evolution of fruit type diversity still are puzzling. We analyzed the variations in proportions and richness of fleshy...

Purpose When studying the effects of environmental variables on plant Si contents, results of laboratory and field experiments do not always agree with each other. However, new insights into the roles silicon plays in plant life can be gained if both approaches are integrated. Methods Experimental and natural-habitat studies of the effects of water...

The article reports results of a long-term geoarchaeological project in the Negev Highlands. Based on previous phytolith analysis from degraded livestock dung, we suggested that the inhabitants of an Iron IIA site in the region subsisted on animal husbandry, without practicing cereal cultivation (Shahack-Gross and Finkelstein 2008). Here we report...

It is commonly assumed that during the Chalcolithic period in the northern Negev (4700-3800 BC in southern Israel) fi elds were located on fl oodplains and runoff irrigation was practiced. Here we present a study conducted at Grar, a Chalcolithic site located on a loess plateau on the banks of Nahal Grar, in which we quantitatively studied the phyt...