Microorganisms play a fundamental role in mineral weathering and soil formation, yet their influence is rarely incorporated into quantitative models of landscape evolution. My current research explores how microbial activity influences weathering processes and how these biological processes can be integrated into surface process theory.

This project is part of a Helmholtz Global Fellowship, working with Jean Braun, Luca Malatesta, and Susanne Liebner at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences. 

[work in progress]

This project investigates how microbes influence, and respond to, the transformation of rock into soil. In a deglaciated alpine basin of the eastern Sierra Nevada, we combined cosmogenic ¹⁰Be dating with DNA sequencing to track microbial communities across bare rock, saprolite, and soil. We discovered that microbial communities follow two different trajectories: soils host diverse, evolving communities linked to weathering and soil formation, while bare rocks preserve low-diversity communities with little change over ~13,000 years. These findings reveal early feedbacks between life and landscapes, showing how microorganisms help shape Earth’s surface over time.

[Manuscript under review at PNAS]

This project examines how Sierra Nevada landscapes responded to the end of the last Ice Age. Using cosmogenic ¹⁰Be exposure dating, we reconstruct glacier retreat and post-glacial erosion in the Bishop Creek and Recess Peak basins. Our results show that large glaciers lingered until ~13,000 years ago before retreating abruptly. This rapid shift left a strong imprint on valley floors and sediment delivery downstream, offering new insight into how mountain landscapes adjust to sudden climate change.

[Manuscript under review in Geology]

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]

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] 

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.