Moshe Shachak (born Moshe Charshak; 1936) is an

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

at the Ben Gurion University. Shachak’s research focuses on

ecosystem engineer An ecosystem engineer is any species that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys a habitat. These organisms can have a large impact on species richness and landscape-level heterogeneity of an area. As a result, ecosystem enginee ...

s, organisms that modulate the abiotic environment. Most of his studies were conducted in

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

and

semi arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-a ...

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

Major contributions

Shachak was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, Israel. In his early career, he studied desert animals and eco-hydrological processes in small desert watershed. Together with colleges he showed that herbivory of snails on cyanobacteria living inside rocks has major impacts of weathering of that rocky desert.Shachak M., Jones C. G., & Granot Y. (1987) Herbiovory in rocks and the weathering of a desert. Science 236(4805):1098-1099 This effect was found to be similar in magnitude to aeolian deposition in that area. A follow-up study showed that this herbivory has a fertilization effect which is about 11% of the nitrogen input in that system. These findings, led to the development of the concept of

s together with Clive Jones and John Lawton. Ecosystem engineers are organisms that change the environment thereby affecting the distribution of many other organisms. Although controversial at the beginning, this concept had become widely accepted. One of the original papers was named in the list of the 100 most influential papers in

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

and today the concept appears in mainstream ecological textbooks. Shachak’s more recent research focuses on plants and cyanobacteria engineers and

pattern formation The science of pattern formation deals with the visible, (statistically) orderly outcomes of self-organization and the common principles behind similar patterns in nature. In developmental biology, pattern formation refers to the generation of ...

.von Hardenberg J, Meron E, Shachak M, & Zarmi Y (2001) Diversity of vegetation patterns and desertification. Physical Review Letters 87(19)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shachak, Moshe 1936 births Academic staff of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ecologists Israeli biologists Living people People from Tel Aviv