MDDE faculty conduct ecological research at different levels of integration including physiological, behavioral, population, community and landscape levels. The second goal is to better understand the ecology of Israeli deserts and to make this knowledge available to the scientific community as well as to government and industry. This information can be used for the conservation and prudent, sustainable development of desert regions. The MDDE has one group project, which today focuses on the conservation of biological diversity. The faculty is currently organizing an international workshop to address problems in conservation of biological diversity in the desert and to set out goals for future research.
Emphasis is placed on studies in applied ecology.
In addition, research by MDDE investigators, their students and visiting colleagues, includes studies of water constraints on long distance bird flight, foraging decision rules, the effects of predation risk on foraging strategies of desert animals, foraging strategies by insect parasitoids and seed predators, social structure of desert birds and mammals, reproductive adaptations of desert animals, population genetics of desert plants and animals, and the effects of competition, predation, and the climatic variables on the community structure of annual plants, rodents and arthropods in the desert.