Dr. Hagai Shemesh

• Plant Ecology
• Evolution
• Mycorrhiza

I am interested in all aspects of plant ecology. These are research questions that I am currently intrigued with:

1.     How do mycorrhizal fungi affect the ecology of trees and shrubs in Mediterranean ecosystems (in collaboration with Professor Yohay Carmel, Prefessor Ofer Ovadia, Dr Yagil Osem and Professor Tom Bruns)?
2.   How does temporal variability in nutrients affect plant behavior?
3.   How do local adaptations and genetic variability affect the populations of a the rare Iris lortetii (in collaboration with Professor Yohay Carmel, Dr Yuval Sapir and Dr Rafi Kent)

I teach the following courses:

•  Biostatistics: an introductory course in statistics
•  Basic ecology: an introductory course reviewing the major ecologica
•  Ecological issues in the galilee: the course focuses on ecological issues that are relevant to northern Israel (the course is given as part of the multidisciplinary program).

2003    Zlotovsky's award for excellence (Ben-Gurion University).

2006     The Avinoam Livne excellence award for outstanding BSc students (Ben-Gurion University).

2007    ELME graduate student scholarship from Kellogg Biological Station (MSU).

2009    ESA student section travel award

2009    Excellence in teaching (Achva College)

2010    Merav Ziv award for excellence in ecology (Ben-Gurion University)

2010    Excellence in teaching (Achva College)

2011    A prize from the Department of Life Sciences for excellence in graduate studies (Ben-Gurion University).

2011    Excellence in teaching (Ben-Gurion University)

2013    Excellence in teaching (Tel-Hai, Environmental Sciences)

2016    Excellence in teaching (Tel-Hai, Environmental Sciences)

1. Sadeh A£, Guterman H£$, Gersani M & O Ovadia (2009) Plastic bet-hedging in an amphicarpic annual: an integrated strategy under variable conditions. Evolutionary Ecology, 23:373-388.
£ The first two authors equally contributed to this manuscript.

$ Previous surname: Guterman

2. Shemesh H, Arbiv A, Gersani M, Ovadia O & A Novoplansky (2010) The effects of nutrient dynamics on root patch choice. PLoS ONE, 5(5): e10824.
 

3. Shemesh H, Ovadia O & A Novoplansky (2010) Anticipating future conditions via trajectory sensitivity. Plant Signaling and Behavior, 5(11): 1501 - 1503.
 

4. Shemesh H, Rosen R, Tunes G, Novoplansky A & O Ovadia (2011). The effect of steepness of temporal resource gradients on spatial root allocation. Plant Signaling and Behavior, 6(9): 1356 - 1360.
 

5. Shemesh H, Ovadia O & A Novoplansky (2012). Prioritized contingencies: Context-dependent responses to herbivore saliva. Plant Ecology, 213(1): 167-174.
 

6. Shemesh H, Zaitchik B, Acuña T & A Novoplansky (2012). Architectural plasticity in a Mediterranean winter annual. Plant Signaling and Behavior, 7(4): 492-501.
 

7. Shemesh H & A Novoplansky (2012). Branching the risks: architectural plasticity and bet-hedging in Mediterranean annuals. Plant Biology, 15(6):1001-12.
 

8. Shemesh H, Ben-Yosef U, Livne S & O Ovadia (2015). The effects of temporal soil carbon dynamics on resource allocation in an annual plant. Journal of Plant Ecology, 9(1), 30-39.
 

9. Livne-Luzon S, Shemesh H, Gilor O & O Ovadia (2015). The effect of temporal variation in soil carbon inputs on interspecific plant competition. Journal of Plant Ecology, 9(5), 564-575.
 

10. Dener E, Kacelnik A & H Shemesh (2016). Pea Plants Show Risk Sensitivity. Current Biology, 26(13): 1763–1767.
 

11. Livne-Luzon S, Avidan Y, Weber G, Migael H, Bruns T, Ovadia O & H Shemesh (2016). Wild boars as spore dispersal agents of ectomycorrhizal fungi: Consequences for community composition at different habitat types. Mycorrhiza. 27 (3), 165-174.
 

12. Livne-Luzon S, Ovadia O, Weber G, Avidan Y, Migael H, Glassman, Bruns T & H Shemesh (2017). Small-scale spatial variability in the distribution of ectomycorrhizal fungi affects plant performance and fungal diversity. Ecology Letters. 20 (9), 1192-1202.
 

13. H Shemesh, G Shani, R Kent, Y Carmel, Y Sapir (2018). To mix or not to mix the sources of relocated plants? The case of the endangered Iris lortetii. Journal of Nature Conservation. 45:41-47.
 

14. Tsafrir A, Osem Y, Shemesh H, Carmel Y, Soref C, Ovadia O (2018). Fire season modifies the perennial plant community composition in eastern Mediterranean woodlands through a differential effect on obligate seeders. Applied Vegetation Science. 22(1): 115-126
 

15. Manela N, Dagon E, Shemesh H, Ovadia O (2019). Smoke interacts with fire history to stimulate soil seed bank germination in Mediterranean woodlands. Journal of Plant Ecology. 12(3): 419-427
 

16. Shemesh, H, Boaz B, Millar C, Bruns T (2019). Symbiotic interactions above treeline of long-lived pines: Mycorrhizal advantage of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) over Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) at the seedling stage. Journal of Ecology. 108(3): 908-916
 

17. Stav Livne-Luzon, Hagai Shemesh, Yagil Osem, Yohay Carmel, Hen Migael, Yael Avidan, Anat Tsafrir, Sydney I. Glassman, Thomas D. Bruns, & Ofer Ovadia (2021). High resilience of the mycorrhizal community to prescribed seasonal burnings in eastern Mediterranean woodlands. Accepted for publication in Mycorrhiza
 

18. Efrat Dener, Hagai Shemesh & Itamar Gilaadi (2021) The effect of pollen source on seed traits and dispersability in the heterocarpic annual Crepis sancta. Accepted for publication in Journal of plant ecology.
 

19. Efrat Dener, Ofer Ovadia, Hagai Shemesh, Ariel Altman, Si-Chong Chen and Itamar Giladi (2021) Direct and indirect effects of fragmentation on seed dispersal traits in a fragmented agricultural landscape. Accepted for publication in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.
 

20. Neta Manela, Ofer Ovadia & Hagai Shemesh (2021) The ability of short-term responses to predict the long-term consequences of conservation management actions: the case of the endangered Paeonia mascula (L.) Mill. Accepted for publication in Journal of Nature Conservation.
 

21. Stav Livne-Luzon, Oren Perlson, Yael Avidan, Guy Sivan, Thomas D. Bruns, & Hagai Shemesh (2021) A none-linear effect of the spatial structure of the soil ectomycorrhizal spore bank on the performance of pine seedlings. Accepted for publication in Mycorrhiza
 

22. Neta Manela, Hagai Shemesh, Yagil Osem, Yohay Carmel, Chanoch Soref, Anat Tsafrir & Ofer Ovadia. Seasonal fires shape the germinable soil seed bank community in eastern Mediterranean woodlands. Accepted for publication in Journal of Plant Ecology.

2006    Guterman, H., Sadeh, A. Amphicarpic ratio response in Emex spinosa to intraspecific density and nutrient availability. The annual conference of the Israeli Society of Plant Sciences. Weizmann Institute (poster).
2007    Sadeh A, Guterman H. Plastic bet-hedging in an amphicarpic annual: an integrated strategy under variable conditions. Annual conference of the Israeli Society of Ecology and Environmental Quality Sciences. Weizmann Institute (poster).
2007    Guterman H, Sadeh A. Plastic bet-hedging in an amphicarpic annual: an integrated strategy under variable conditions. Ecological Society of America meeting, San Jose, CA (talk).
2008    Guterman H, Ovadia O & A Novoplansky. Underground communication enables plants to predict future competition. Symposium in memory of Merav Ziv. Sde-Boker, Israel (talk)
2008    Arbiv A, Guterman H, Ovadia O & A Novoplansky. Resource gradients as predictors of future conditions in plants. Annual conference of the Israeli Society of Ecology and Environmental Quality Sciences. Technion Israeli Institute of Technology (poster)
2008    Shemesh H, Arbiv A, Gersani M, Ovadia O, Novoplansky A. The effects of nutrient dynamics on root patch choice. Annual meeting of the British Ecological Society, Imperial College London (talk).
2009    Shemesh H, Arbiv A, Gersani M, Ovadia O, Novoplansky A. The effects of nutrient dynamics on root patch choice. Annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Albuquerque New Mexico (talk).
2010    Shemesh H & A Novoplansky. Plant adaptations to variable season length. Symposium in memory of Merav Ziv. Sde-Boker, Israel (talk)
2014    Shemesh H & E Dener. Beyond average: risk sensitivity in an annual plant. Annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Sacramento California (talk).

2015   Shemesh H , E Dener & Alex Kacelnik. Beyond average: risk sensitivity in an annual plant.Annual meeting of the Nordic Oikos society.Turku Finland (poster).

2016    Shemesh H , E Dener & Alex Kacelnik. Beyond average: risk sensitivity in an annual plant.Invited seminar, Plant sciences department, Oxford University.

2016    Hagai Shemesh, Gil Weber, Yael Avidan, Hen Migael, Stav Livne-Luzon, Thomas Bruns & Ofer Ovadia. The effects of spatial heterogeneity in mycorrhizal inoculation potential on pine seedling development. Annual Popbio meeting, Trebon, Czech Republic (poster).

• A recent article in the New-York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/science/pea-plants-risk-assessment.html

• A recent article in the Daily mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3668366/Growing-broke-Pea-plants-gamble-make-decisions-Shrubs-switch-risk-prone-risk-averse-secure-nutrients.html

• Plant Ecology 2017

http://skipody.wixsite.com/plant-ecology-2017