Extreme climatic events include rare precipitation, temperature and storm events such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation.
The figure at right shows a conceptual model for historical and existing natural disturbance levels in the Columbia River (Johnson et al 2004).
Controlling factors that are affected by extreme climatic events:
Currents
Elevation/Depth/Bathymetry
Hydrodynamics
Light
Nutrients
Salinity
Sediment Quality
Temperature
Turbidity
