MICHAEL ALLEN

Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Department of Biology
Director, Center for Conservation Biology
Office: University Lab Building 209
Phone (951) 827-5494

E-mail: michael.allen@ucr.edu

Degree: Ph.D., University of Wyoming , 1980

Allen Lab Webpage

My interests focus on the regulation of community and ecosystem processes by soil organisms with special emphasis on mycorrhizal fungi.  My current research concentrates on global change dynamics and structure of undisturbed areas, and how that information can be utilized in the conservation and restoration of native ecosystems.

Some Representative Publications ...

• Gomez-Pompa, A., M.F. Allen, S. Fedick, and J.J. Jimenez-Osornio. 2003. Lowland Maya Area: Three millennia at the human-wildland interface. Haworth Press, N.Y. 659 pp.
• Allen, M.F. 1991. The Ecology of Mycorrhizae. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge Studies in Ecology series.
• Allen, M.F. (ed.) 1992. Mycorrhizal Functioning. Chapman Hall.

Recent key papers:

• Allen, M.F., J.N. Klironomos, K.K. Treseder, and W.C. Oechel. 2005. Responses of soil biota to elevated CO₂ in a chaparral ecosystem. Ecological Applications.15: 1701-1711.
• Klironomos, J.N., M.F. Allen, M.C. Rillig, J. Piotrowski, S. Makvandi-Nejad, B.E. Wolfe, and J.R. Powell. 2005. Abrupt rise in atmospheric CO₂ overestimates community response in a model plant-soil system. Nature (London) 433: 621-624..
• Allen, M.F., E.B. Allen and A. Gomez-Pompa. 2005. Effects of mycorrhizae and nontarget organisms on restoration of seasonal tropical forest in Quintana Roo, Mexico: factors limiting tree establishment. Restoration Ecology 13: 325-333.
• Treseder, K.K., M.F. Allen, R.W. Ruess, K.S. Pregitzer, and R.L. Hendrick. 2005. Lifespans of fungal rhizomorphs under nitrogen fertilization in a pinyon-juniper woodland. Plant and Soil 270: 249-255.
• Allen, M.F., C. Crisifulli, S. Morris, L. Egerton-Warburton, J.A. MacMahon, and J. Trappe. 2005. Mycorrhizae and Mount St. Helens: Story of a symbiosis. Pp. 221-231 In: Ecological Responses to the 1980 Eruptions of Mount St. Helens. Dale, V.H., Swanson, F.J. and C.M. Crisafulli (eds.). Springer-Verlag, New York.
• Redeker, K.R., K.K. Treseder, and M.F. Allen. 2004. Ectomycorrhizal fungi: A new source of atmospheric methyl halides? Global Change Biology 10: 1009-1016.
• Treseder, K.K., C.A. Masiello, J.L. Lansing, and M.F. Allen. 2004. Species-specific measurements of ectomycorrhizal turnover under N-fertilization: Combining isotopic and genetic approaches. Oecologia 138: 419-425.
• Allen, M.F., W. Swenson, J.I. Querejeta, L.M. Egerton-Warburton, and K.K. Treseder. 2003. Ecology of mycorrhizae: A conceptual framework for complex interactions among plants and fungi. Annual Review of Phytopathology 41: 271-303.
• Allen, E.B., M.F. Allen, L. Egerton-Warburton, L. Corkidi, and A. Gomez-Pompa. 2003. Impacts of early- and late-seral mycorrhizae during restoration in seasonal tropical forest, Mexico. Ecological Applications 13: 1701-1717.
• Querejeta, J. I., L. Egerton-Warburton and M. F. Allen. 2003. Direct nocturnal water transfer from oaks to their mycorrhizal symbionts during severe soil drying. Oecologia 134: 55-64.
• Egerton,-Warburton, L.M., R.C. Graham, E.B. Allen, and M.F. Allen. 2001. Reconstruction of historical changes in mycorrhizal fungal communities under anthropogenic nitrogen deposition. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 268: 2479-2484.
• Rillig, M.C., S.F. Wright, M.F. Allen and C.B. Field. 1999. Rise in carbon dioxide changes soil structure. Nature (London) 400: 628.

Courses taught:

• Biology 116 Ecology and Conservation Biology
• Biology 166 Conservation Ecology
• Biology 212 Ecological Systems in Space and Time