When extreme weather wipes out wildlife, the fallout can last for years

February 4, 2019 by Sean Maxwell And James Watson, The Conversation

The recent heatwaves have proved deadly to many Australian animals, from feral horses to flying foxes.

And it's not just heatwaves that can cause mass die-offs. Last year, flooding rain wiped out entire Antarctic penguin colonies, while drought has previously caused mass mangrove diebacks around the Gulf of Carpentaria.

These events generate headlines, but what about the aftermath? And are these catastrophic events part of a wider pattern?

Our research describes how species have responded to extreme weather events over the past 70 years. These responses can tell us a great deal about how species are likely to cope with change in the frequency and intensity of extreme events in coming years.

We reviewed 517 studies, dating back to 1941 and conducted throughout the world, that examined how birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates or plants have responded to droughts, cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and cold snaps.

We found more than 100 cases of dramatic population declines. In a quarter of these cases, population numbers showed no sign of recovery long after the event. And in most cases, extreme events reduced populations of common species that play an important role in maintaining ecosystem integrity.

For example, extreme drought in the 2000s drove massive population declines of invertebrate freshwater species across Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, and populations of buffalo, waterbuck, and kudu along the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe suffered severe and persistent declines following droughts in the 1980s.

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