Prof. Iggy Litaor

I am the head of the Hydro-geochemistry lab in MIGAL located in Tel Hai industrial park. I have been involved in research of soil & water and snow dynamics in the Colorado Front Range since 1981 to present. Between 1990 and 1996 I studied the fate and transport of radionuclides (Pu, Am & U) around a nuclear facility and their potential influence on residential areas around the site. Since 1996 I have been conducting research on the hydro-geochemistry of P in wetlands and in altered wetland soils. The studies encompass the assessment of the mineralogy, sorption-desorption mechanisms, fate and transport in highly fractured peat environs, development of P recycling technologies, and the impact of various land use and land use change on P transport to waterways. More recently, I have developed & evaluated aerated cells technology for the treatment of organic-laden wastewater. I also involve in the study of salinity processes in altered wetland soils, the influence of compost and zeolites additions on K availability in selected crops and the usage of proximal soil survey techniques to assess the spatiotemporal variability and availability of water and nutrients. Finally, I am studying the ornitogenic impact on soils and constructed wetlands in highly intensive farming setting.

Research in the last six years:

1. 2021 – 2024. Fertigation experiment in a new re-afforestation initiative using mixed native tree species in Gilbow Mountain, Israel. JNF, 600,000 NIS (PI).
2. 2021 – 2023. Making alternative phosphate fertilizer using Fe-DTR and agro-industrial effluents. Israel Innovation Authority – NOFAR program,1.2 million NIS (PI).
3. 2020 – 2023. SOILdarity - Stepping up and bringing out the scientific excellence and innovation capacity in soil Research of the University of Lisbon. H2020 (PI), 220312 EU.
4. 2020 – 2023. The impact of irrigation with Lake Kinneret water on the soil health of Hula Valley. Israel Water Authority – Research Project (PI), 360,000 NIS.
5. 2020 – 2023. Integrated Solution Systems Development for Precision Irrigation and Fertilizer Management. BARD – Research Project (PI), IS-5221-19, $310,000.
6. 2017 – 2018. Model of Precision Agriculture – Development of Integrative System for the quantification of spatial soil fertility. MIGAL, 170,000 NIS.
7. 2016 – 2020. Bridging the Gap for Innovations in Disaster Resilience – BRIGAID. Horizon 2020 (PI), EU 395000.
8. 2016 – 2018. Co-addition of zeolites and compost for improvement of soil quality and fertility and crop yield by increasing K availability. Ministry of Agriculture (PI), 420,000 NIS.
9. 2015 – 2018. Phosphorus capture and recycling and utilization for sustainable agriculture using Al/organic composite water treatment residuals. BARD – Research Project IS-4870-15 R (PI), $295,000.

Present:

• Introduction to Soil and Water Sciences
• Introduction to Environmental Sciences
• Treatment wetlands (graduate level)

Past:

• Biogeochemistry
• Introduction to geohydrology
• Introduction to geology

1. Litaor, I., S. Schechter, I. Zohar, M.S. Massey, J. A. Ippolito. 2019. Making Phosphorus Fertilizer from Dairy Wastewater with Al Water Treatment Residuals. Soil Science Society of America Journal. doi:10.2136/sssaj2018.07.0278
2. Israeli, A., Emmerich, M., Litaor, M., Shir, O.M. 2019. Statistical Learning in Soil Sampling Design Aided by Pareto Optimization. In: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2019, New York, NY, USA, ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/3321707.3321809
3. Crawford, J.T., Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley, M. Iggy Litaor , Janice Brahney and Jason C Neff. 2019. Evidence for accelerated weathering and sulfate export in high alpine environments. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 124092. Doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5d9c.124092
4. Banet, T., M.S. Massey, I. Zohar, M. Iggy Litaor, J.A. Ippolito. 2020. Assessing modified aluminum-based water treatment residuals as plant-available phosphorus source. Chemosphere, 247, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.125949.
5. Ben Yona, M. A. Rimmer, E. Shamir, and Iggy Litaor. 2020. Hydrologic response in the karstic and basaltic hydro-geological units of Lake Kinneret Watershed. Jour. Hydrology. 583, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124572.
6. Zohar, I., J.A. Ippolito, and M. I. 2020. Phosphorus pools in Al and Fe-based water treatment residuals (WTRs) following mixing with agro-wastewater - a sequential extraction study. Environmental Technology & Innovation, 18, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2020.100654.
7. Banet, T., Massey, M.S., Zohar, I., Litaor, M.I. and Ippolito, J.A. 2020. Phosphorus removal from swine wastewater using aluminum-based water treatment residuals. Resources, Conservation and Recycling: X,6, 100039. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcrx.2020.100039.
8. Orlofsky, E., S. Chernoivanov, A. Asiag, I. Maor and M. I. Litaor. 2020. Biological Reconditioning of Sodium Enriched Zeolite by Halophytes: Case study of Dairy Farm Effluent Treatment. International Journal of Phytoremediation. https://doi.org/10.1080/15226514.2020.1799932
9. Katz, L., Naor, A., Litaor, M. I., Ben-Gal, A., Alchanatis, V., Peres, M., Peeters, A., & Cohen, Y. (2021). Methodology for comparison between uniform and variable rate application in a drip-irrigated peach orchard. Precision Agriculture ’21, 71–78. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-916-9_7
10. Litaor, M.I. 2022. Alpine Ecosystem Response to Climate Warming: Long-Term Monitoring Data of Lakes and Streams Chemistries Revisited. Science of the Total Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156292

11. Katz, L., A. Ben-Gal, M. I. Litaor, A. Naor, A. Peeters, E. Goldshtein, G. Lidor, O. Keisar, S. Marzuk, V. Alchanatis, Y. Cohen. 2023. How sensitive is thermal image-based orchard water status estimation to canopy extraction quality?  Remote Sensing 15, https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/5/1448 

12. Litaor, M.I., Israeli, A. 2023. A new precision soil sampling approach in support of reforestation experiment in dry Mediterranean ecosystem. 14th European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Bologna, Italy. DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-947-3_74 

13. Ganem, H.I., M.I. Litaor, O. Reichmann, I. Zohar, 2023. Optimization of phosphorus removal from agro-wastewater by iron desalinization treatment residue ( Fe-DTR ), J. Environ. Chem. Eng. 11 (2023) 111385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2023.111385. 

14.  Xiaomei Liu, Xueqing Xu, Rongnian Xu, Na Wang, Fenghong Yang, Cailing Yang, Yanrong Kong, M. Iggy Litaor, Ziqiang Lei. 2024, Preparation and properties of a metal-organic frameworks polymer material based on Sa-son seed gum capable of simultaneously absorbing liquid water and water vapor. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 269 (2024) 132158.

http://www.migal.org.il/Iggy-Litaor