Research entomologist Vince D'Amico

The seminar will take place in 122 Briggs Hall. The Zoom link is https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076. 

BosWash Megalopolis is the heavily populated area extending from Boston to Washington and including New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. 

"The temperate deciduous forest biome covers about 5 percent of the Earth's surface, but is home to 25 percent of the human population," D'Amico says in his abstract. "Once a huge tract of forested land, this area now consists of many thousands of small, heterogenous forests. Research in the FRAME (FoRests Among Managed Ecosystems) program is conducted over a network of permanent forest sites in the BosWash Megalopolis of the U.S. East Coast, to answer ecological questions at many trophic levels. I will discuss the results of some of this research."

FRAME researchers target temperate deciduous forests in the Anthropocene age, a current geological age viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. 

From the website: "Our current work includes experimental and observational studies of soil and key species to understand interactions between plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Other research is focused on monitoring, manipulations aimed directly at site improvement, and technology transfer for better management of urban forest fragments. As of 2022, there are 60 FRAME sites in MA, PA, DE, MD and NC."

Among D'Amico's publications:

• Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches, published in August 2021 in Urban Ecosytems
• Local landscapes and microhabitat characteristics are important determinants of urban–suburban forest bee communities, published in October 2019 in Ecosphere
• Lawn mowing frequency in suburban areas has no detectable effect on Borrelia spp. vector Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae), published in April 2019 in PLOS-ONE 
• Urban forest fragments buffer trees from warming and pests, published in March 2019 in Science of the Total Enfironment

 A 25-year research entomologist with USDA, D'Amico joined in February, 1997. He has served on the adjunct faculty of the University of Delaware since 2001. His expertise includes ecosystems ecology, urban ecology an invasion ecology. D'Amico received his bachelor's degree in biology in 1989, and his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The Wednesday seminars are coordinated by nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. For technical issues, contact ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.