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“Essentially, all life depends upon the soil...There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.”
- Charles E. Kellogg
Contact Us
The Robert H Smith Faculty
of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Herzl 229 Rehovot 7610001
ISRAEL
tel: 972-8-9489284
fax: 972-8-9475181
Ofira.Foss@mail.huji.ac.il
The Department of Soil and Water Sciences promotes research on global processes in the soil-water-atmosphere continuum. Our unique Israeli environment — limited water resources, state of the art agriculture, diverse climate and soils — offers us exciting research opportunities.
The Department was established in the early 1950's to support the developing agriculture of the young state. Today, we perform cutting-edge research and develop advanced technologies in the following fields:
Soil fertility, soil chemistry, soil and water pollution and solution, soil-plant-atmosphere interactions,
water treatment and reuse for irrigation, precise irrigation, soil development and degradation,
human impact on the environment.
About
Soil and water are among the most important resources on our planet. Soils are heterogeneous mixtures of air, water, inorganic and organic solids, and microorganisms (both plant and animal in nature). They support the earth's ecosystems, by providing a habitat for plants and, ultimately, all terrestrial life. Dr. Roy W. Simonson well captured our motivation to explore and better understand this essential system: “The soil is the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface. It is the foothold for the plants we grow. Therein lies the main reason for our interest in soils.”
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Research
The research activities of the Department of Soil and Water Sciences are driven by basic scientific questions regarding the natural and agricultural environments. Building on thorough studies, in-depth understanding and creativity we aim to propose agricultural and environmental solutions for the 21st century. The soil is a three-phase body composed of colloidal mineral and organic matter, bordering the atmosphere, supporting plant growth. Therefore, our research explores the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, from the point of view of Soil Physics and Soil Chemistry.
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