BGU Foram's Lab

In recent years we have been witnessing a large-scale invasion of many alien tropical species into the Eastern Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, termed Lessepsian invasion. This process is promoted both by the ongoing warming of sea surface temperature (SST) in the last decades, and the establishment of hyper-oligotrophic conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean as a result of closure of the Nile River by the High Aswan Dam. The unique position of Israel at the vicinity of the two recently connected oceanic provinces, The Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean provides an unmatched opportunity to investigate the scale and magnitude of the Lessepsian invasion and to understand its effect on the marine coastal ecosystems. This study focuses on several species of larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) that are indicative to tropical and subtropical regions and serve as an excellent biomonitoring tool for the marine ecosystems of these environments