Dr. Avi Bar-Massada
Senior Lecturer
I am a spatial ecologist who studies how species interactions and the relationships between species and the environment shape ecological communities. In addition, I study how human activities affect these processes, specifically in the case of human settlement in or near natural ecosystems, and as the outcomes of grazing and fire. My research is based on computer models, advanced statistical analyses of large spatial databases, and spatial analyses using geographic information systems and remote sensing tools.
Academic Background
B.Sc. Environmental Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
M.Sc. Soil, Water, and Environmental Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Ph.D. Soil, Water, and Environmental Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Selected publications
Bar-Massada, A., Ives, A.R., Butsic, V. (2019) A mathematical partitioning of the effects of habitat loss and habitat degradation on species abundance. Landscape Ecology, 34:9-15. [link]
Radeloff, V.C., Helmers, D.P., Kramer, H.A., Mockrin, M.H., Alexandre, P.M., Bar-Massada, A., Butsic, V., Hawbaker, T.J., Martinuzzi, S., Syphard, A.D., Stewart, S.I. (2018) Rapid growth of the U.S. Wildland Urban Interface raises wildfire risk. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115:3314-3319. [link]
Bar-Massada, A., Belmaker, J. (2017) Non-stationarity in the co-occurrence patterns of species across environmental gradients. Journal of Ecology 105:391-399. [link]
Bar-Massada, A., Hadar, L. (2017) Grazing and temporal turnover in herbaceous communities in a Mediterranean landscape. Journal of Vegetation Science 28:270-280. [link]
Bar-Massada, A. (2015) Complex relationships between species niches and environmental heterogeneity affect species co-occurrence patterns in modelled and real communities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282:20150927. [link]
Bar-Massada, A., Wood, E. (2014) The richness – heterogeneity relationship differs between heterogeneity measures within and among habitats. Ecography 37:528-535. [link]
Teaching
Biostatistics, Landscape Ecology, Introduction to GIS, Introduction to Remote Sensing