Jayme Lewthwaite

Abstract Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity, but their ecological impacts remain less well understood than those of gradual climate change, largely owing to the challenge of studying unpredictable, short-lived events. The 2021 western North American heatwave is among the most extreme on record globally, yet a broad assessment of its ecological consequences is lacking.

Abstract Previous studies have documented very little net change in average quadrat-level species richness and phylogenetic diversity. However, although the average remains centered around 0, there is much variation around this mean and many outliers. The relative contribution of anthropogenic drivers (such as climate change or land use change) to these outliers remains unclear.