Pedology of archaeological soils in tells of the Judean foothills, Israel

Itkin, Danny; Crouvi, Onn; Monger, H. Curtis; Shaanan, Uri; Goldfus, Haim

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2018.03.014

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…To describe the distribution of different lineages identified by the genetic analyses, a set of 33 environmental variables of potential biological importance were selected (Table S3; Steiner et al 2008). Variables included 19 temperature and precipitation co-factors (CHELSA Climate v.1.1, Karger et al 2017), nine soil variables (https://soilgrids.org, Hengl et al 2014Hengl et al , 2017Itkin et al 2018), and five remotesensing-derived vegetation land cover products (Tuanmu & Jetz 2014). All raster data were resampled according to the highest spatial resolution (cell size 0.008) to standardize the model sampling and the individual values of every predictor variable were extracted for each colony and background point.…”

Section: Species Distribution Models (Sdm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systematics of harvester ants (Messor) in Israel based on integrated morphological, genetic, and ecological data

Saar

Eyer

Cohen

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Harvester ants of the genus Messor are considered ecosystem engineers, whose distribution is broadly influenced by a variety of environmental factors. Although distinct Messor species have been reported to inhabit different habitats, their taxonomy in Israel remains largely ambiguous, hampering the proper ecological characterization of these species. Here, we applied an integrative species delimitation approach combining morphology-based identification, phylogenetic analyses of nuclear and mitochondrial genes, and ecological niche modelling to investigate the phylogenetic relationships among Messor species in the small but ecologically diverse region of Israel. Our analyses of mitochondrial genes revealed the presence of at least 13 well-defined lineages, whereas only seven were supported by the analysis of the nuclear genes. However, the concatenated tree that included all the three markers supported 11 lineages. Among two of the lineages-in M. semirufus and in a group of ants closest in resemblance to M. grandinidus- we identified 3-4 clades that were well established on most trees, inviting further study. In addition, we reveal three undescribed species and raise two subspecies to species rank, highlighting the high diversity of harvester ants in Israel. Ecological niche modelling consistently supported the observed distribution of species, with soil type and average annual temperature being the most influential factors. These results demonstrate that species distribution modelling can serve as a valuable component of integrative species delimitation. We call for future studies to investigate these fascinating lineages of one of the most prominent and ecologically important genera of ants in the Mediterranean Basin.

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Section: Species Distribution Models (Sdm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soil type, which appeared to explain the probability of occurrences in most of the examined lineages, consisted of 23 distinct types (further subdivided into smaller categories; Itkin et al 2018). Different soil types explained the probability of occurrence in the five lineages, with some overlap (Table 3).…”

Section: Species Distribution Models (Sdm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematics of harvester ants (Messor) in Israel based on integrated morphological, genetic, and ecological data

Saar

Eyer

Cohen

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Geoarchaeological studies, using methods such as soil analyses (e.g. Sedov et al 2017;Smejda et al 2017;Paz et al 2017;Itkin et al 2018) or archaeobotanical studies (e.g. Orendi et al 2017) are promising.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using floristic characteristics of contemporary vegetation for identifying archaeological sites: Tel ‘Eton archaeological site as a test case

Sapir

Faust

2019

Israel J. Plant Sci.

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Over the last century, crosstalk between archaeologists and botanists had focused on the identification of plants remnants, such as charcoal or seeds found in archaeological inventory. Here we demonstrate how botany can play a fundamental role in identifying ancient landscape by using current vegetation. Identifying the loci of ancient human activity is the initial step of any archaeological study, enabling analyses such as settlement patterns, economic structures and land use, as well as devising excavations strategy. While mounds (tells) are standing out of their surroundings and are easily detected, other sites are hidden underground, and require various methods for detection. The cost and intensity of these methods vary, but most are time-consuming, require a team of specialists, and show somewhat limited success, leading archaeologists to seek new methods of site detection. Here, we describe a study of vegetational parameters at Tel ‘Eton (Israel), located in a semi-arid climatic region, where vegetation is mostly herbaceous, mainly comprised of annual plants. We compared above ground biomass, species richness and species composition among four plots in Tel ‘Eton and its surrounding. Two plots were located where ancient settlement found in a previous study, one on top of the mound and one below, where a “lower city” was previously identified. The other two plots were located in similar topographies, namely one on a hill and the other below, but in never-settled areas. While above ground biomass was similar between settled and not-settled plots, species richness was significantly higher in settled plots (40 and 32 species in settled plots, versus 28 and 9 species in non-settled) and species composition was significantly different between them. Our results demonstrate that loci of buried remains of human activity significantly differ from non-settled ones, hence providing the basis for an above ground indirect method of identification of human remains. We propose that floristic sampling of ground-level vegetation may allow archaeologists to identify buried sites, and hence increase the validity of various types of archaeological analyses, such as creating maps of settlements, which rely on the identification of sites without excavating them.

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