Steven Frank

DAVIS--Steven Frank, assistant professor of biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, will speak on "Can Forests Take the Heat? Managing Pests and Ecosystem Services in a Warming Climate"
 from 12:10 to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 18 in 122 Briggs Hall.

"Trees help mitigate the urban heat island effect and provide other services to urban residents," Frank says in his abstract. "Unfortunately, herbivores are often more abundant and damaging on urban than rural trees.  We have found that urban warming increases pest abundance directly and indirectly by changing interactions with parasitoids.  Our goal is to determine how urban warming and pests interact to affect tree health and the services they provide.  We want to determine if cities, which have been warming for centuries, may be canaries in the coal mine that can predict the effects of global warming on natural forests."

Frank completed all three degrees (bachelor's, master's and doctorate) at the University of Maryland where he was advised by Paula Shrewsbury and Bob Denno. He spent a year as a postdoc at Texas A&M before joining the faculty of North Carolina State University in 2007. His research focuses on understanding how urbanization and climate change affect tree pests, pollinators, and ecosystem services. He also conducts research on optimizing IPM and biological control in greenhouses, nurseries, and landscapes.

Plans call for video-recording the seminar for later posting on UCTV.

See pending seminars on this page.