Widespread ecological responses and cascading effects of the 2021 western North American heatwave

Widespread ecological responses and cascading effects of the 2021 western North American heatwave

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. Here we synthesize meteorological, ecological, hydrologic…