Severe flooding causes a crash in production of white stork (Ciconia ciconia) chicks across Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Abstract Recent theoretical and field studies show that stochastic, extreme ecological events may influence the dynamics of populations for many years. However, to date, studies have focused only on the short-term effect of ecological catastrophes and/or extremes on population dynamics. In this paper, we present results from the great flood of July 1997 in Central and Eastern Europe and how it affected the white stork ( Ciconia ciconia ), a long-lived bird species. Using long-term data collected in 1987–2003, we examined the effect of the great flood on population size and chick production and we focussed on the 10 years preceding and 6 years following the flood. Habitats of 18 of the 25 stork populations studied were inundated during the flood of 1997. The flooded populations had a massive loss of chicks in 1997 but quickly recovered to about 85% of expected normal chick production compared to the control populations. This suggests a relatively minor but long-term consequence on population dynamics over a large geographic scale resulting from the extreme flooding event.