Multiple stressors and social-ecological traps in Pampean streams (Argentina): A conceptual model

GRAZIANO, MARTÍN; GIORGI, ADONIS; FEIJOÓ, CLAUDIA

THE SCIENCE OF TOTAL ENVIRONMENT

Elsevier

Lugar: Riverside; Año: 2020

0048-9697

Fluvial systems are particularly sensitive to changes in the terrestrial ecosystems where they areembedded, receiving simultaneously the impact of multiple stressors. The design of adequatemanagement policies requires analyzing fluvial systems as social-ecological systems, becausethe decoupling of natural and social systems can lead to a severe mismatch between maintainingecological integrity and the pursuit of human well-being. Pampean streams are especially proneto the impact of human activities because they are located in a region that provides almost halfof the agricultural production of Argentina and concentrates 66% of the whole population of thecountry. In the present work, we conceived a general social-ecological framework that links theoccurrence of multiple stressors and their impacts on ecosystem services, with changes inenvironmental perception of streams, which in turn feedback over institutional actions at thewatershed‟s governance. We identified four current key drivers of the dynamics in Pampeanstreams: a dominant agro-industrial model for the region, a command-and-control governanceregime mainly based on an engineering hydraulic perspective, the real estate market speculationof surrounding lands, and the persistence of structural poverty in urban areas. The resultingdynamics resembles the occurrence of different kinds of social-ecological traps, i.e., a highlystable but undesirable state of the system that is difficult to escape. Based on this analysis, weprovide a leverage point perspective to avoid this trap. Together, this approach could be appliedto other fluvial systems of the world to link the ecological and social domains to multiplestressors analysis, and to improve institutional fit for the sustainability of fluvial socialecologicalsystems.