Craig D Allen, Ph.D. (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Western Mountain Initiative: predicting ecosystem responses to climate change
Mountain ecosystems of the western United States provide irreplaceable goods and services such as water, timber, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, but their responses to climatic changes are complex and not well understood. The Western Mountain Initiative (WMI), a collaboration between USGS and U.S. Forest Service scientists, catalyzes...
Baron, Jill S.; Peterson, David L.; Wilson, J.T.Mapping "old" versus "young" piñon-juniper stands with a predictive topo-climatic model in north-central New Mexico, USA
Piñon pine and juniper woodlands in the southwestern United States are often represented as an expanding and even invasive vegetation type, a legacy of historic grazing, and culpable in the degradation of western rangelands. A long-standing emphasis on forage production, in combination with recent hazard fuel concerns, has prompted a new era of...
Jacobs, B. F.; Romme, W.H.; Allen, Craig D.Mechanisms of plant survival and mortality during drought: Why do some plants survive while others succumb to drought?
Severe droughts have been associated with regional-scale forest mortality worldwide. Climate change is expected to exacerbate regional mortality events; however, prediction remains difficult because the physiological mechanisms underlying drought survival and mortality are poorly understood. We developed a hydraulically based theory considering...
McDowell, Nate G.; Pockman, William T.; Allen, Craig D.; Breshears, David D.; Cobb, Neil; Kolb, Thomas; Plaut, Jennifer; Sperry, John; West, Adam; Williams, David G.; Yepez, Enrico A.Development of the mixed conifer forest in northern New Mexico and its relationship to Holocene environmental change
Chihuahueños Bog (2925 m) in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico contains one of the few records of late-glacial and postglacial development of the mixed conifer forest in southwestern North America. The Chihuahueños Bog record extends to over 15,000 cal yr BP. AnArtemisiasteppe, then an openPiceawoodland grew around a small pond until ca....
Anderson, R. Scott; Jass, R.B.; Toney, J.L.; Allen, Craig D.; Cisneros-Dozal, L. M.; Hess, M.; Heikoop, Jeff; Fessenden, J.Geographic patterns of ground-dwelling arthropods across an ecoregional transition in the north American Southwest
We examined the biogeographic patterns of ground-dwelling arthropod communities across a heterogeneous semiarid region of the Southern Rio Grande Rift Valley of New Mexico. Our 3 sites included portions of 5 ecoregions, with the middle site a transition area where all ecoregions converged. We addressed the following 3 questions: (1) Do the species...
Lightfoot, D.C.; Brantley, S.L.; Allen, Craig D.Holocene vegetation and fire regimes in subalpine and mixed conifer forests, southern Rocky Mountains, USA
Our understanding of the present forest structure of western North America hinges on our ability to determine antecedent forest conditions. Sedimentary records from lakes and bogs in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico provide information on the relationships between climate and vegetation change, and fire history since...
Anderson, R. Scott; Allen, Craig D.; Toney, J.L.; Jass, R.B.; Bair, A.N.National parks: Chapter 4
Covering about 4% of the United States, the 338,000 km² of protected areas in the National Park System contain representative landscapes of all of the nation’s biomes and ecosystems. The U.S. National Park Service Organic Act established the National Park System in 1916 “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild...
Julius, Susan Herrod; West, Jordan M.; Baron, Jill S.; Allen, Craig D.; Fleishman, Erica; Gunderson, Lance; McKenzie, Don; Meyerson, Laura A.; Oropeza, Jill; Stephenson, Nathan L.Paired charcoal and tree-ring records of high-frequency Holocene fire from two New Mexico bog sites
Two primary methods for reconstructing paleofire occurrence include dendrochronological dating of fire scars and stand ages from live or dead trees (extending back centuries into the past) and sedimentary records of charcoal particles from lakes and bogs, providing perspectives on fire history that can extend back for many thousands of years....
Allen, Craig D.; Anderson, R. Scott; Jass, R.B.; Toney, J.L.; Baisan, C.H.Preliminary review of adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and resources. A report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Climate variables are key determinants of geographic distributions and biophysical characteristics of ecosystems, communities, and species. Climate change is therefore affecting many species attributes, ecological interactions, and ecosystem processes. Because changes in the climate system will continue into the future regardless of emissions...
Julius, Susan Herrod; West, Jordan M.; Baron, Jill S.; Griffith, Brad; Joyce, Linda A.; Kareiva, Peter; Keller, Brian D.; Palmer, Margaret A.; Peterson, Charles H.; Scott, J. MichaelTwo middle Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles from the Valle Grande, Jemez Mountains, northern New Mexico
A long-lived middle Pleistocene lake formed in the Valle Grande, a large moat valley of the Valles caldera innorthern New Mexico, when a post-caldera eruption (South Mountain rhyolite) dammed the drainage out of the caldera. Thedeposits of this lake were cored in May 2004 (GLAD5 project, hole VC-3) and 81 m of mostly lacustrine silty mud...
Kues, Barry S.; Kelley, Shari A.; Lueth, Virgil W.; Fawcett, Peter J.; Heikoop, Jeff; Goff, Fraser; Anderson, R. Scott; Donohoo-Hurley, L.; Geissman, John William; WoldeGabriel, Giday; Allen, Craig D.; Johnson, Catrina M.; Smith, Susan J.; Fessenden-Rahn, JuliannaAn overview of the Valles Caldera National Preserve: the natural and cultural resources
The Valles Caldera National Preserve is one of New Mexico’s natural wonders and a popular area for public recreation, sustainable natural resource production, and scientific research and education. Here, we provide a concise overview of the natural and cultural history of the Preserve, including descriptions of the ecosystems, flora and...
Kues, Barry S.; Kelley, Shari A.; Lueth, Virgil W.; Parmenter, Robert R.; Steffen, Anastasia; Allen, Craig D.A stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests of the southern Rocky Mountains
Dendroecological techniques were applied to reconstruct stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Fourteen stand-replacing fires were dated to 8 unique fire years (1842–1901) using four lines of evidence at each of 12 sites within the upper Rio Grande Basin. The four lines of evidence were...
Margolis, E.Q.; Swetnam, T.W.; Allen, Craig D.