During a historic drought in northern Kenya, a pastoralist community turned to a food source it had long viewed as a fallback for people without livestock: fishing.
As herds dwindled and families struggled to obtain food, fishing on nearby Lake Turkana became increasingly common among the Daasanach. By the end of the drought, a livelihood once associated with poverty and social stigma had become an important source of food and income.
The shift is among the key findings of a new collaborative study - led by Penn State researchers and published in the journal Global Environmental Change - showing that prolonged drought can alter not only physical health and food access, but also the cultural norms, livelihoods and settlement patterns that shape daily life.
The researchers began the study before the drought, so they were able to document the changes as they unfolded and follow the Daasanach for a year after rains returned. The team found that the effects of an extreme climate event can persist in many ways, even after environmental conditions improve.
"When we started this project, we were interested in understanding long-term water and food security among a population living in a hot, dry environment that is highly susceptible to droughts," said Asher Rosinger, associate professor of biobehavioral health and anthropology at Penn State, who was lead author and principal investigator on the study. "We didn't know we were about to witness one of the most severe droughts in recent history, which allowed us to see how people adapted as conditions changed."
Rosinger and collaborators included 515 adults and 384 children from the Daasanach community from 2019 through 2024. The study spanned the period before the historic Greater Horn of Africa drought, which lasted from late 2020 to early 2023, and included a full year after conditions improved.
According to the researchers, the drought affected nearly every aspect of life they measured, including nutrition, physical health, food and water security, livelihoods and mobility.
