"Did you know that in one acre of almond orchard there can be more earthworms than the entire population of Los Angeles? What are they doing down there?"
So asks Amanda Hodson, assistant professor of soil ecology and pest management, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematolgy, who will present a departmental seminar on "Musings on the Subterranean Invertebrate Metropolis" at 12:10 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 14 in 122 Briggs Hall. Her seminar also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672,
"We know that earthworms generally assist nutrient and residue management by ingesting and transporting debris from the soil surface to the subsurface," she says in her abstract. "Resulting burrows and increased soil organic matter improve soil structure, water holding capacity, nutrient availability, and microbial activity. Nematodes, worms of a different phyla, are also very involved with soil carbon, with research indicating that bacterial-feeding nematodes are the most important, perhaps because they increase the cycling of microbes by feeding on them. One big question is how can we increase beneficial nematodes and naturalized earthworm populations through on-farm management to harness their power?"
Hodson, a native of New Mexico, holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis (2010) and a bachelor’s degree in biology, magna cum laude (2004), from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, has been heavily involved with UC agroecological research since 2010.
Hodson joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematolgy faculty in 2022. Her career has taken her from Stockton to UC Davis:
- March 2010-December 2010: Staff Research Associate, UC Cooperative Extension, Stockton.
- December 2010-February 2015: Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources
- April 2015-March 2017: Project Scientist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
- March 2017-November 2022: Assistant Professional Researcher, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
- November 2022-Present: Assistant Professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Her lab's main scientific goal "is to learn how to more sustainably manage agroecological systems to control pests and improve soil health. Our work integrates the fields of nematology, acarology, biogeochemistry, and molecular biology."
Hodson is a member of the Society of Nematologists, California Nematology Workgroup, and the Soil Ecology Society.
For any Zoom issues, seminar coordinator Marshall McMunn, assistant professor, may be reached at msmcmunn@ucdavis.edu.
Cover image: Earthworms from a Amanda Hodson lab field study. (Photo courtesy of Hodson lab)