River flow regimes face increasing pressure from human activities including water resource management operations and climate change. Consequently, extreme hydrological events are becoming more severe and commonplace, and there is a pressing need to understand and manage their ecological effects. Extreme low-flows (ELFs)those displaying significantly greater magnitudes and durations than typical low-flow conditionsare being increasingly experienced globally. Fish and macroinvertebrate responses to ELFs have been more widely researched relative to other organism groups in riverine environments, although such studies have employed variable methodological techniques. In this perspective piece, we identify field-based assessments and controlled experiments as two key research paradigms used to examine riverine faunal responses to ELFs. Field-based