Dying piñon pine (Pinus edulis) with orange needles, due to drought stress and associated bark beetle outbreak, Jemez Mtns., NM. October 2002.
The same view, with grey skeletons of dead piñon pines (Pinus edulis) after the needles have dropped, with surviving green junipers. May 2004.
Natural climatic variability, including episodic droughts, has long been known to trigger accelerated tree mortality in forests worldwide, including in the Southwest U.S. Scientific understanding of the process drivers and spatial patterns of tree mortality is surprisingly limited, constraining our ability to model forest responses to projected climate changes. The onset of regional drought since the late 1990s has resulted in extensive die-off episodes of multiple tree species across millions of acres in the Southwest, fostering substantial collaborative tree mortality research in this region. Ongoing tree mortality research in northern New Mexico includes: reconstruction of historic forest dieback patterns; monitoring of forest and woodland demographies (tree mortality and regeneration); experimental determination of physiological thresholds of drought- and heat-induced tree mortality; relationships between tree growth, drought stress, insects/diseases, and mortality; remote-sensing of landscape-scale patterns of forest stress and die-off; documentation of regional, national, and global patterns of forest die-off; and efforts to improve models of tree mortality processe
Multi-scale predictions of massive conifer mortality due to chronic temperature rise
Larger trees suffer most during drought in forests worldwide
On underestimation of global vulnerability to tree mortality and forest die-off from hotter drought in the Anthropocene
Patterns and causes of observed piñon pine mortality in the southwestern United States
Projected future changes in vegetation in western North America in the 21st century
Watering the forest for the trees: An emerging priority for managing water in forest landscapes
Quantifying tree mortality in a mixed species woodland using multitemporal high spatial resolution satellite imagery
Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality
Statement of Dr. Craig D. Allen, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate, 17 August 2012
Millennial precipitation reconstruction for the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, reveals changing drought signal
Climate-induced tree mortality: Earth system consequences
A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests
Natural climatic variability, including episodic droughts, has long been known to trigger accelerated tree mortality in forests worldwide, including in the Southwest U.S. Scientific understanding of the process drivers and spatial patterns of tree mortality is surprisingly limited, constraining our ability to model forest responses to projected climate changes. The onset of regional drought since the late 1990s has resulted in extensive die-off episodes of multiple tree species across millions of acres in the Southwest, fostering substantial collaborative tree mortality research in this region. Ongoing tree mortality research in northern New Mexico includes: reconstruction of historic forest dieback patterns; monitoring of forest and woodland demographies (tree mortality and regeneration); experimental determination of physiological thresholds of drought- and heat-induced tree mortality; relationships between tree growth, drought stress, insects/diseases, and mortality; remote-sensing of landscape-scale patterns of forest stress and die-off; documentation of regional, national, and global patterns of forest die-off; and efforts to improve models of tree mortality processe