Ofer Ovadia
Lecturer in Ecology and Evolution 
 Ben-Gurion University
Dept. of Life Sciences
POB 653
Be’er Sheva 84105, Israel
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 +972-8-6461359
+972-8-6479230
+972-8-6472648
oferovad@bgu.ac.il  

Research Interests

  My scientific worldview is based on an evolutionarily and ecologically mechanistic approach, combining field experimentation with computer simulation of natural data and or analytical models.  My research aim is to understand how genetic and phenotypic (i.e., morphology, behavior and life history) variation change along geographical scales and to evaluate the consequent effects of such variation on population and community dynamics.

Curriculum Vitae  

  Date of Birth: November 6, 1963
Place of Birth: Beer-Sheva, Israel
Nationality: Israeli
Marital status:  Married + 3
Military Service: 1981-1986     Rank:  Lieutenant Colonel.

 

1987-1990: B.Sc., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
1990-1993: M.Sc., with distinction, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
1993-1999:  Ph.D., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
1999-2004: Post Doctoral Fellow, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
2004-2008: Lecturer, Department of Life sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
  2008-present: Senior Lecturer, Department of Life sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

Professional Activities

1999-Present: Reviewed articles for Animal Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Ecology, Ecology Letters, Oecologia, and Oikos.
2005-Present: Editor for Israel Journal of Zoology.

Membership in Professional Societies

1996-Present: The Ecological Society of America, Washington, DC, USA.
1996-Present: International Society for Behavioral Ecology, Oxford, UK.
1996-Present: Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, Cambridge, UK.

Awards Received

1996-1999: Clore Scholarship - A Project of the Charles Clore 1979 Israel Foundation (A National honorary award for excellence in graduate studies in the field of Natural Sciences).
1999-2001: Fulbright fellowship for post doctoral studies - Research Award in Environmental Science in the USA.
1999-2001: The Gaylord Donnelley Environmental Fellowship – Post Doctoral fellowship, Yale Institution for Biospheric Studies, Yale University.

Research Grants

2005-2006: Israel Science Foundation. Research equipment grant for a new faculty. $122,000.
2005-2009: Israel Science Foundation. Consequences of variation in morphological and life history traits among individuals on their population demography. $156,000, 4-yrs.
2006-2007: Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Scaling-up from movement pattern to reserve management - linking movement pattern and spatial distribution to habitat heterogeneity in two endangered species, Testudo werneri and Meriones sacramenti, and in the outbreak species Vulpes vulpes. $20,000, 1-yr.
2007-2008: Israel Ministry of Science. Applying advanced GIS-based methodology and ecological theory for conservation planning and management of endangered species at Agur Sands: Testudo werneri and Meriones sacramenti. $44,000, 1-yr.

Teaching

2001-2004: Landscape Ecology – Course for Graduate Students, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
2002-2003: Community Ecology – Course for Graduate Students, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
2003-2004: Research Methods – Course for Graduate Students, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
2004-present: Lab in Plant Sciences – Course for Undergraduate Students, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel (Jointly taught with Dr. Moriyah Zik ).
2004-Present: Plant Sciences – Course for Undergraduate Students, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel (Jointly taught with Dr. Moriyah Zik ).
2004-Present: Population Ecology – Course for Graduate & Undergraduate Students, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
2004-Present: Ecology B – Course for Undergraduate Students, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel (Jointly taught with Prof. Zvika Abramsky , Prof. Burt Kotler).
2004-Present: Departmental Seminar – Course for Graduate Students, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , Beer-Sheva , Israel (Jointly coordinated with Dr. Dan Mishmar).

Links

 Schmitz Lab - Oswald Schmitz' laboratory of terrestrial food web dynamics.

Publications

  1. Scharf, I., Barkee, E.D. and Ovadia, O. 2009. Response of pit-building antlions to repeated unsuccessful encounters with prey. Animal Behaviour (Accepted)
  2. Scharf, I., Filin, I., Subach, A. and Ovadia, O. 2009. A comparison between two desert populations of a sit-and-pursue antlion: differences in morphology and life-history. Naturwissenschaften (Accepted)
  3. Scharf, I., Filin, I. and Ovadia, O. 2009. A trade-off between growth and starvation endurance in a pit-building antlion. Oecologia 160:453-460  [pdf]
  4. Subach, A., Scharf, I. and Ovadia, O. 2009. Foraging behavior and predation success of the sand viper (Cerastes
  5. vipera). Canadian Journal of Zoology 87:520-528  [pdf]
  6. Scharf, I., Kotler, B. and Ovadia, O. 2009. Consequences of food distribution for optimal searching behavior: An evolutionary model. Evolutionary Ecology 23:245-259 
    7. [pdf]
  7. Scharf, I., Golan, B. and Ovadia, O. 2009. The effect of sand depth, feeding regime, density and body mass on the foraging behavior of a pit-building antlion. Ecological Entomology 34:26-33  [pdf]
  8. Scharf, I., Filin, I., Ben-Yehoshua, D. and Ovadia, O. 2009. Phenotypic plasticity and variation in morphological and life-history traits of antlion adults across a climatic gradient. Zoology 112:139-150  [pdf]
  9. Scharf, I., Ovadia, O. and Bouskila, A. 2008. Prey encounter rate by predators: Discussing the realism of grid-based models and how to model the predator’s foraging mode: A reply to Avgar et al. The American Naturalist 172:596–598. [pdf]
  10. Scharf, I., Subach, A. and Ovadia, O. 2008. Foraging behaviour and habitat selection in pit-building antlion
    larvae in constant light or dark conditions. Animal Behavior 76: 2049-2057.     [pdf]
  11. Filin, I., Schmitz, O.J. and Ovadia, O. 2008. Consequences of individual size variation on the survival of an insect herbivore: An analytical model and an experimental field testing using the Red-legged Grasshopper. Journal of Orthoptera Research 17(2): 283-291. [pdf]
  12. Scharf, I., Filin, I. and Ovadia, O. 2008. An experimental design and a statistical analysis separating interference from exploitation competition. Population Ecology 50: 319-324. [pdf]
  13. Scharf, I., Filin, I., Golan, M., Buchshtav, M., Subach, A. and Ovadia, O. 2008. A comparison between desert and Mediterranean antlion populations: Differences in life history and morphology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21: 162-172. [pdf]
  14. Scharf, I., Hollender, Y., Subach, A. and Ovadia, O. 2008. Effect of spatial pattern and microhabitat on pit construction and relocation in Myrmeleon hyalinus (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) larvae. Ecological Entomology 33:337-345. [pdf]
  15. Loria, R., Scharf, I., Subach, A. and Ovadia, O. 2008. The interplay between foraging mode, habitat structure, and predator presence in antlions. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 62: 1185-1192. [pdf]
  16. Feder, J., Blech, I., Ovadia, O., Amar, S., Wainstein, J., Raz, I., Dadon, S., Arking, D.E., Glaser, B. and Mishmar, D. 2008. Differences in mtDNA haplogroup distribution among 3 Jewish populations alter susceptibility to T2DM complications. BMC Genomics 9:198. [pdf]
  17. Sadeh, A., Guterman, H., Gersani, M. and Ovadia, O.  2008. Plastic bet-hedging in an amphicarpic annual: An integrated strategy under variable conditions. Evolutionary Ecology (Online First - DOI: 10.1007/s10682-007-9232-2). [pdf] 
  18. Filin, I. and Ovadia, O. 2007. Individual size variation and population stability in a seasonal environment: A discrete-time model and its calibration using grasshoppers. The American Naturalist 170:719-733. [pdf]
  19. Ovadia, O., zu Dohna, H., Booth, G. and Schmitz, O.J. 2007. Consequences of body size variation among herbivores on the strength of plant-herbivore interactions in a seasonal environment.  Ecological Modeling 206:119-130. [pdf]
  20. Amar, S., Shamir, A., Ovadia, O., Blanaru, M., Reshef, A., Kremer, I., Rietschel, M., Schulze, T.G., Maier, W., Belmaker, H., Ebstein, R., Agam, G. and Mishmar, D. 2007. Mitochondrial DNA HV lineage increases the susceptibility to schizophrenia among Israeli Arabs. Schizophrenia Research 94: 354–358. [pdf]    
  21. Feder, J., Ovadia, O., Glaser, B. and Mishmar, D. 2007. Ashkenazi Jewish mtDNA haplogroup distribution varies among distinct subpopulations: Lessons of population sub-structure in a closed group. European Journal of Human Genetics 15(4): 498-500. [pdf]
  22. Scharf, I., Nolman, E., Ovadia, O. and Bouskila, A. 2006. Efficiency evaluation of two competing foraging modes under different conditions. The American Naturalist 168(3): 350-357. [pdf]
  23. Scharf, I. and & Ovadia, O. 2005. Factors influencing site abandonment and site selection in a sit-and-wait predator: A review of pit-building antlion larvae. Journal of Insect Behavior 19(2): 197–218. [pdf]
  24. Kotler, B.P., Dickman, C.R., Wasserberg, G. and Ovadia, O. 2005.  The use of time and space by male and female gerbils exploiting a pulsed resource. Oikos 109: 594-602. [pdf]
  25. Ovadia, O., Abramsky, Z., Pinshow, B. and Kotler, B.P. 2005.  Inter-specific competitors reduce inter-gender competition in Negev Desert gerbils.  Oecologia 142: 480-488. [pdf]
  26. Ovadia, O., and Schmitz, O.J.  2004.  Scaling from individuals to food webs: The role of size-dependent responses of prey to predation risk.  Israel J. of Zoology 50: 273-297. [pdf]
  27. Ovadia, O., and Schmitz, O.J.  2004.  Weather variation and trophic interaction strength: Sorting the signal from the noise.  Oecologia 140: 398-406. [pdf]
  28. Schmitz, O.J., Vlastimil, K. and Ovadia, O. 2004.  Trophic cascades: The primacy of trait-mediated indirect interactions.  Ecology Letters 204(7): 153-163. [pdf]
  29. Ovadia, O. and zu Dohna, H.  2003. The effect of intra- and inter-specific aggression on patch residence time in Negev Desert gerbils: A competing risk analysis. Behavioral Ecology 14(4):583-591. [pdf]
  30. Ovadia, O.  2003.  Ranking hotspots of varying sizes: A lesson from the non-linearity of the species-area relationship.  Conservation Biology 17(5):1440-1441. [pdf]
  31. Ovadia, O. and Schmitz, O.J. 2002.  Linking individuals with ecosystems: experimentally identifying the relevant organizational scale for predicting trophic abundances.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 99(2):12927-12931. [pdf]
  32. Ovadia, O., Ziv, Y., Abramsky, Z., Pinshow, B. and Kotler, B.P. 2001.  Harvest rates and foraging strategies in Negev desert gerbils.  Behavioral Ecology 12(2):219-226. [pdf]
  33. Ovadia, O. and Abramsky, Z.  1995.  Density-dependent habitat selection: Evaluation of the isodar method.  Oikos 73:86-94. [pdf]
  34. Abramsky, Z., Ovadia, O. and Rosenzweig, M.L. 1994.  The shape of Gerbillus pyramidum (Rodentia: Gerbillinae) isocline: an experimental field study.  Oikos 69:318-326. [pdf]