A bust but no boom: responses of floodplain bird assemblages during and after prolonged drought

1. Climate change alters the frequency and severity of extreme events, such as drought. Such events will be increasingly important in shaping communities as climate change intensifies. The ability of species to withstand extreme events (resistance) and to recover once adverse conditions abate (resilience) will determine their persistence. 2. We estimated the resistance and resilience of bird species during and after a 13-year drought (the ‘Big Dry’) in floodplain forests in south-eastern Australia. 3. We conducted bird surveys at the beginning and end of the Big Dry, and after the abrupt end to the drought (the ‘Big Wet’), to evaluate species-specific changes in reporting rates among the three periods. We assessed changes in bird-breeding activity before and after the Big Wet to estimate demographic resilience based on breeding. 4. Between the start and the end of the Big Dry (1998 vs. 2009), 37 of 67 species declined substantially. Of those, only two had increased reporting rates after...