Inside the framework — how extreme events impact river biodiversity

A behind‑the‑scenes look at Figure 2 from our new review.

Figure 2 from the paper: Tonkin et al. 2026 Nature Reviews Biodiversity. Partially copied and modified from the original caption: Extreme climatic events (ECEs) such as floods, droughts and heatwaves (yellow boxes) affect several aspects of riverine biodiversity (red box), but the impacts depend on: the scale and location of the ECE within the connected river network (part b); modulation by underlying or interacting stressors (part c) and whether the ECE occurs alone or as a compound event with another ECE (part d).

In the main essay this week, I shared a piece we wrote for The Conversation about our recent review of extreme event impacts on river biodiversity in Nature Reviews Biodiversity. One thing I couldn’t fit into that piece is the conceptual backbone of the review: how extreme events impact river biodiversity, and why their effects cascade out beyond where they occur. Figure 2 from the paper is the closest thing to that. But there’s a lot going on, so I thought I’d share it here and break it down a bit.