Dr. Aviad Scheinin and Dr. Leigh Livne are project team members *again* for another National Geographic grant, the Meridian grant, titled: "Integrating Research, Storytelling, and Education for Addressing Ecological and Human Dimensions of Shark Conservation.
Summarizing Guitarfish season 2023We are very pleased to finish the 2023 G. cemiculus (Blackchin guitarfish) season with 107 neonates measured, tagged, and sampled along both the Israeli and Cypriot coastline. Blackchin neonates are most prevalent from the end of August to the beginning of November in what is referred to as 'hot spots'.Thanks to a collaboration with Blue Marine Foundation and MER Research Institute we organized a research expedition in…
https://youtu.be/r0ZO_eo8YO8A collaboration between the Apex Marine Predator lab of The Morris Kahn Marine Research Station, MER research institute , and ISea , funded by the Blue Marine Foundation executed a seven-day expedition to Larnaca in Cyprus.Sightings of blackchin guitarfish (Glaucostegus cemiculus) neonates from both the Israeli and Cypriot coastal waters brought the two research teams together to better understand the biology and population connectivity of this critically endangered species in…
Experts say sharks are the victims of disruption to their natural habitat and food supply due to overfishing, bringing them closer to the shore.
Chasing a storm! at the Water chemistry lab“The effect of major storms on the base of the food-web in the East Mediterranean Sea”The effect of extreme climatic events on oligotrophic ocean ecosystems is an important area of research, particularly with predictions of climate warming and increased storm frequency and intensity.The aim of this project is to characterize the nutrient dynamics and biogeochemical changes before, during and after major winter storms.…
Please find the 14th edition of the Morris Kahn Marine Research Station newsletter here on our website. Inside are some updates and new publications since May 2023.For our previous newsletters, please enter here 14th Newsletter
Dendronephthya hemprichi New coral invasive species in the mediterranean sea
https://youtu.be/GuxdxwgoKeULast October, MKMRS’ very own Emerging Explorer, Dr Aviad Scheinin, and postdoctoral fellow Dr Leigh Allison Livne, were awarded the prestigious Wayfinder grant for their research on movements and reproduction of the sandbar and dusky shark in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The Marine Apex Predator lab has tagged 100 sharks and is studying their movements along the Israeli coastal shelf every November to May. But interestingly, both species disappear from…
Simultaneous observations revealed the non-steady state effects of a tropical storm on the export of particles and inorganic nitrogen through a river-estuary continuum Michael D. Krom An important consequence of storms in river-estuary systems is major changes in hydrology and nutrients being fluxed from the land to the coastal ocean. During storms, sediments deposited in estuaries during normal flow, are resuspended adding DIN to the extra nitrogen fluxing down the river. Additional nitrate was added to the estuary by leaching from adjacent soils and groundwater, nitrification, and less denitrification. Storms increase total nitrogen flux to coastal areas, with relatively more ammonium export during increasing hydrography.
The winter aggregation of sharks near the Orot Rabin power plant is largely composed of large, female dusky sharks and smaller, male sandbar sharks. It is, therefore, possible that the female sharks are using the warmer waters of the effluent at some stage of their reproductive cycle. In 2016, a pregnant dusky shark washed ashore near Hadera with 8 mid-stage fetuses in her uterus. Further evidence of pregnant sharks was…
