Functional responses and adaptation strategies of pastoral households to drought and volcanic ashfall in Northern Patagonia

Bibliographic Data

ID19487592
AuthorsLuciana Laborda (0000-0002-6411-8601, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), A H Ladio (0000-0002-2844-6704, Centro Científico Tecnológico - Patagonia Norte), Marcos H Easdale (0000-0003-1097-5242, Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias), Valeria E Álvarez (Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias), M Paula Ocariz (Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias), Octavio Bruzzone, Octavio Augusto Bruzzone (0000-0003-2358-1963, Bariloche Atomic Centre), Pablo Tittonell (0000-0002-0284-2514)
Year2026
Volume15
Publication date2026-05-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnobiology and Conservation (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2238-4782 • E-ISSN: 2238-4782
PublisherUniversidade Estadual da Paraiba/Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (Ethnobiology and Conservation) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.15451/ec2026-05-15-12-1-21
OpenAlexW7162259612
LanguageEN
References cited52

Livestock is the main source of food and income, as well as a key socio-cultural asset for pastoralist households in arid and marginalized environments. Pastoral households in the drylands of Northern Patagonia in Argentina have faced repeated droughts over the past two decades and a large volcanic ashfall in 2011 that halved their livestock herds. While most households were severely affected by these events, some were able to withstand or recover over time while others suffered prolonged stress or even out-migrated. Through in-depth interviews with 33 pastoral households in Pilcaniyeu (Río Negro Province), we investigated the factors that shaped their functional responses and adaptive strategies in the face of these shocks, under the lenses of ethnobiology and systemic resilience theories. We assessed livelihood decisions, social interactions and changes in household assets before the ashfall (2011), during the six months following it, and eight years later (2019), and identified four structural and four functional responses archetypes (Anticipatory, Reactive, Conservative and Passive) and their adaptation strategies (Tolerance, Resistance, Avoidance, Diversification and Transformation). Household structural characteristics were less instrumental at determining the adaptive responses observed in the community than their ethnobiological and biocultural characteristics. Household responses were enabled by assets, local knowledge and social capital, mediated by individual motivation, collective agency and culturally situated values. Our findings further highlight that in such marginalized environments access to telecommunication or road connectivity are critical at enabling a range of functional responses and adaptive strategies, especially when they rely on collective action. Policies to support resilience of pastoral livelihoods should consider the diversity of strategies as identified here, prioritizing aids for households exhibiting passive responses while enhancing the adaptive potential of those already able to mobilize conservative, anticipatory and reactive strategies. Overall, this study contributes a novel, complementary methodology for understanding and categorizing household adaptation from an ethnobiological and biocultural perspective

Adaptive capacity · Adaptive strategies · Agency (philosophy) · Diversification (marketing strategy) · Herding · Livelihood · Livestock · Pastoralism · Psychological resilience · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis

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