rilovg@ocean.org.il
Rilovlab.com
Tel: 04 – 8565261
Senior Scientist
Ph.D. 2000, Tel Aviv University, Israel
At IOLR since 2009
Research interests:
At IOLR I established the marine community ecology lab in 2009 and between 2016-2018 I headed the Marine Biology Department. I am also an Associate Professor in the Marine Biology Department at the Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa. I have been studying the ecology of coastal communities (coral reefs, rocky shores, deep reefs, and seagrass) for the past 30 years in many biogeographic regions (Mediterranean, Red Sea, Pacific, Atlantic, and Caribbean coasts). This includes ecological surveys and field and lab experiments on benthic-pelagic coupling (larval recruitment), species interactions, biodiversity, and more. I have 106 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 6 book chapters, and I edited a Springer book on Marine Bioinvasions.
In the international arena, I received an EU Marie Curie grant, was a partner in 3 European Union-FP7 projects, was part of the core group of a COST-ACTION project, MARCONS, on marine conservation in European waters, was/am a PI on two joint Israel-Germany grant (BMBF) comparing climate change impacts in the Baltic and east Mediterranean seas, and I had a binational BSF-NSF grant with Northeastern University in the USA, for climate change research on rocky intertidal ecosystems. I am also one of the initiators and leaders of an EU HORIZON-2020 project, FutureMARES, that focuses on the current and future impacts of climate change on marine biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services, as well as developing nature-based solutions to deal with these impacts. I am also a partner and task leader in a new Horizon Europe, ACTNOW, focusing on the impact of cumulative stressors on the marine environment.
My lab currently runs the national monitoring program on rocky shore biodiversity, and investigates the ecology and biodiversity of Mediterranean coastal communities, and the effects of bioinvasions, climate change (warming, acidification, sea level rise, and extreme events) and marine protected areas on these communities and their functions. I am trying to translate my findings and insights into actions regarding ecosystem services (with a special focus on Blue Carbon), nature based-solutions, and marine conservation planning. My students also studied sea turtle ecology and conservation, shark populations in the eastern Mediterranean as well as seagrass ecology and mapping in the Red Sea. I was a lead author of the marine ecosystems chapter of the national ecosystem assessment of Israel that assessed marine ecosystem services. As part of the BALTMED and BIOMOD projects with GEOMAR (Kiel, Germany), my lab has constructed several innovative experimental installations (including large mesocosm facilities) to test the effects of warming and acidification on benthic species, communities and ecosystem functions, which is providing valuable insights on the impacts of climate change on Mediterranean ecological communities.
Selected publications from the last five years:
Mulas M, Silverman J, Guy-Haim T, Noé S, Rilov G. (2022). High climate vulnerability of the Levantine endemic and endangered habitat-forming macroalga, Gongolaria rayssiae: implications for reef carbon. Frontiers in Marine Science. DOI:10.3389/fmars.2022.862332. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.862332/full.
Rilov G, Klein L, Iluz D, Dubinsky Z, Guy-Haim T (2022). Last snail standing? Superior thermal resilience of an alien tropical intertidal gastropod over natives in an ocean-warming hotspot. Biological Invasions. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-022-02871-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114370.
Noé S, Rilov G. (2022). High climate vulnerability of the Levantine endemic and endangered habitat-forming macroalga, Gongolaria rayssiae: implications for reef carbon. Frontiers in Marine Science. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2022.862332. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.862332/full
Fraschetti S, 29 co-authors, Rilov G, Borja A (2022). An integrated assessment of the Good Environmental Status of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas. Journal of Environmental Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114370.
Amsalem E, Rilov G (2021). High thermal plasticity, and vulnerability, in extreme environments at the warm distributional edge: the case of a tidepool shrimp. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 545: 151641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2021.151641.
Bevilacqua S, Airoldi, Ballesteros E, Benedetti-Cecchi L, Boero F, Bulleri F, Cebrian E, Cerrano C, Claudet J, Colloca F, Coppari M, Di Franco A, Fraschetti S, Garrabou J, Guarnieri G, Guerranti C, Guidetti P, Halpern BS, Katsanevakis S, Mangano MC, Micheli1 F, Milazzo M, Pusceddu A, Renzi M, Rilov G, Sarà G, Terlizzi Antonio (2021). Mediterranean rocky reefs in the Anthropocene: present status and future concerns. Advances in Marine Biology. 89: 1-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.amb.2021.08.001.
Albano PG, Steger J, Bošnjak M, Dunne B, Guifarro Z, Turapova E, Hua Q, Kaufman DS, Rilov G, Zuschin M. (2021) Native biodiversity collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2469.
Rilov G, Peleg O, Guy-Haim T, Yeruham E. (2020). Community dynamics and ecological shifts on Mediterranean vermetid reefs. Marine Environmental Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105045
Gamliel I, Garval T, Guy-Haim T, Willette D, Rilov G, Belmaker J (2020). Incorporating physiology into species distribution models moderates the projected impact of warming on Mediterranean marine species. Ecography 43(7):1090-1106. DOI: 10.1111/ecog.04423
Rilov G, Mazaris AD., Stelzenmüller V, Helmuth B, Wahl M, Guy-Haim T, Mieszkowska N, Ledoux JB, Katsanevakis S (2019). Adaptive marine conservation planning in the face of climate change: What can we learn from physiological, ecological and genetic studies? Global Ecology and Conservation. DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00566.
Zamir R, Alpert Pinhas, Rilov G (2018). Increase in weather patterns generating extreme desiccation events: implications to Mediterranean rocky shore ecosystems. Estuaries and Coasts. 7: 1868-1884.
Barash A, PickholtzR, Pickholtz E, Blaustein L, Rilov G. (2018). Seasonal aggregations of sharks near coastal power plants in Israel: an emerging phenomenon. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 590: 145-154.
Guy-Haim T, Lyons DA, Kotta J, Ojaveer H, Queirós AM, Chatzinikolaou E, Arvanitidis C, Como S, Magni P, Blight AJ, Orav-Kotta H, Somerfield PJ, P Crowe TP, Rilov G (2018). Effects of invasive ecosystem engineers on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functions – a global review and meta-analysis. Global Change Biology. DOI:10.1111/gcb.14007
Rilov G, Peleg O, Yeruham E, Garval T, Vichik A, Raveh O (2018). Alien turf: overfishing, overgrazing and invader domination on southeastern Levant reef ecosystems. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. DOI:10.1002/aqc.2862
