Sapir, Nir

Berman building, room 101
Tel: +972-(0)2-6586080
Fax: +972-(0)2-6584655
E-mail: nir.sapir@mail.huji.ac.il

Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jerusalem 91904
Israel

Research interest: Bird Migration Ecology

I am a PhD student in the Movement Ecology Lab. My research deals with different aspects of bird migration ecology. I have completed my M.Sc. thesis in Ben-Gurion University entitled: “Stopover ecology of autumn migratory passerines in a man-made wood at a desert edge”. My current Ph.D. thesis is: "Integrating high-resolution radio telemetry and atmospheric numerical modeling to study European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) migration over southern Israel". This study, supported by the USA-Israel Binational Science Fund, incorporates portable radiotelemetry for tracking bird movement and ecophysiology during migratory flights with a multi-grid numerical Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) applied to Southern Israel. The study goals are to quantify bird migration characteristics such as the timing of flight initiation, the type of flight (soaring-gliding versus flapping flight), the degree of drift due to side winds and the resulting flight speed and energy expenditure during migration while encountering a diversity of meteorological circumstances. Additional advisor: Prof. Roni Avissar, Dpeartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, USA.

Publications

Lerner, A., Meltser, N., Sapir, N., Erlick, C., Shashar, N. and Broza, M. 2008. Reflected polarization leads chironomids oviposition habitat selection. Journal of Experimental Biology 211:3536-3543.  PDF

Tsurim, I., Sapir, N., Belmaker, J., Shanni, I., Izhaki, I., Wojciechowski, M. S., Karasov, W. H. and Pinshow, B. 2008. Drinking water boosts food intake rate, body mass increase and fat accumulation in migratory blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla). Oecologia 156:21-30.  PDF

Nathan, R., Sapir, N., Trakhtenbrot, A., Katul, G.G., Bohrer, G., Otte, M., Avissar, R., Soons, M.B., Horn, H.S., Wikelski, M. and Levin, S.A. 2005. Long-distance biological transport processes through the air: can nature’s complexity be unfolded in-silico? Diversity and Distributions 11:131-137. PDF

Sapir, N., Abramsky, Z., Shochat, E. and Izhaki, I. 2004. Scale dependent habitat selection for food and safety of autumn migrating frugivorous passerines. Naturwissenschaften 91:544-547. PDF

Sapir, N., Tsurim, I., Gal, B. and Abramsky, Z. 2004. The effect of water availability on fuel deposition of two staging Sylvia species. Journal of Avian Biology 35:25-32. PDF

Sapir, N. 2003. Six new breeding bird species in Israel during 1995-2002. Israel Journal of Zoology 49:203-218. PDF