Makhtesh Ramon: Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Nature

Abstract

Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary investigation of natural systems requires terrains of undisturbed wilderness that will be preserved for the foreseeable future and be managed as laboratories of nature, open to all researchers. Makhtesh Ramon, an erosive 'hole in the ground' in south-central Israel, has been declared a National Geological Park of 500 km₂. Research has gone on in the Ramon for over 40 years, related to its stratigraphy, fossil assemblages, magmatic intrusive bodies, tectonic features, geomorphology, arid-zone climatology, hydrology, botany, zoology and archaeology. These scientific activities have been, like field research elsewhere, sporadic, short-term and little coordinated; specimens and unpublished reports are not accessible to other scientists. A master plan has now been worked out to turn the Ramon into a 'laboratory of nature'. Its guidelines are described in the present review, as are the scientific merits of the Ramon project and preliminary results that have been obtained.