Current and previous research projects
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Research Overview
Research Overview
My work explores how surface processes and life shape each other across Earth's history. Rooted in field-based geomorphology and geochemical methods, my research examines how weathering, landscape evolution, and ecosystem development interact over time. I use tools like cosmogenic nuclide dating to quantify rates of surface change, and more recently, metagenomics to investigate microbial communities and their contributions to geomorphological processes.
Microbial Weathering and Landscape Evolution
Microbial Weathering and Landscape Evolution
This research explores how microbial communities shape, and are shaped by, rock weathering and soil formation. Working in a recently deglaciated basin in the eastern Sierra Nevada, I combine cosmogenic nuclides and DNA sequencing to track how microbes evolve across surface rock, saprolite, and soil.
We found that microbial diversity and activity shift dramatically as rocks weather into soils, revealing early-stage feedbacks between life and landscapes.
[Manuscript submitted to Nature Geoscience.]
Rapid Deglaciation in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA
Rapid Deglaciation in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA
This project investigates how landscapes in the Eastern Sierra Nevada responded to late Pleistocene glaciation and Holocene climate transition. Using cosmogenic ¹⁰Be exposure dating, we dated glacial retreat in two adjacent basins (Bishop Creek and Recess Peak) and reconstructed post-glacial erosion rates. Our results reveal rapid ice retreat and high rates of basin-wide erosion, offering new insight into how mountain landscapes adjust to major climatic shifts.
[Manuscript in preparation.]
Using cosmogenic nuclide data from four large rivers (Amazon, Branco, Colorado, and Po) we constructed a stochastic model that simulated transport dynamics in large-scale fluvial systems. Constrained by cosmogenic nuclide data our model quantifies residence times in large rivers to range between tens to hundreds of thousands of years (104-105 yr).
[Ben-Israel et al., 2022; JGR-Earth Surface]
Using cosmogenic 21Ne concentration in Miocene sediments (chert pebbles and quartz sand) we looked into erosion rates of the Hazeva River, which drained the Jordanian Plateau and the Sinai Peninsula prior to the subsidence of the Dead Sea Rift Valley.
[Ben-Israel et al., 2021; ESurf]
I tested how we can use stable cosmogenic 21Ne in the deep geological past (107-108 years). I figured out this is quite challenging and you need to account for post-burial production (muons), non-cosmogenic 21Ne procured in the quartz grain (nucleogenic Ne), and loss of Ne from diffusion (oh my!).
[Ben-Israel et al., 2020; EPSL]
I looked at the theoretical implications of Ne diffusion due to long-term exposure at the surface of quartz sediments in hot deserts. Turns out grain-size matters, but diffusion from exposure to sunlight can be an issue after 2-3 million years of exposure and longer...
[guest post on 'The bleeding edge of cosmogenic-nuclide geochemistry' blog]
The brief history of sands on Earth's surface
The brief history of sands on Earth's surface
Using cosmogenic 21Ne we examined how long has quartz sand been exposed at the surface throughout the sedimentary cycle and concluded that sand grains spend most of their time buried and only a brief time at the surface.
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