Small-scale fish buyers' trade networks reveal diverse actor types and differential adaptive capacities.

The importance of understanding how social-ecological interdependencies deriving from global trade influence sustainability has been argued for decades. Even if substantial progress has been made, a research gap remains regarding how the adaptability of small-scale fish buyers, whose daily operations have implications for the livelihood of more than 100 million people, are affected by networks of trade relationships. Adaptability is here defined as fish buyers´ abilities to adapt using their relationships with others. We elaborate how these capacities relate to the precise patterns in which a fish buyer is entangled with other fish buyers, with the fishers, and with the targeted fish species, by combining a multilevel social-ecological network model with empirical data from a small-scale fishery in Mexico. Further, we also identify types of fish buyers distinguishable by how they operate, and how they are embedded in the trading network. Our results suggest that adaptability differs substantially amongst these types, thus implying that fish buyers' abilities to respond to changes are unevenly distributed. This study demonstrates the need for a more profound understanding of the consequences of the different ways in which fish buyers operate commercially, and how these operations are affected by patterns of social and social-ecological interdependencies. A multi-level network model explicates trade relationships amongst fish buyers and between fish buyers, fishers, and fish resources. We use this model to conceptualize fish buyer's adaptive capacity defined by three dimensions: adaptive capacity in relation to other buyers, in relation to fishers, and in relation to fish resource fluctuations. In combining network measures with qualitative insights, we characterized five types of fish buyers based on their pattern of relationships with other fish buyers, and how they are connected with fishers and with different types of market demand. The results suggest that each type of fish buyer has different capacities to adapt to changes, which can have potential implication for small-scale fisheries sustainability. Unlabelled Image • Trade involves fish exchange embedded in social relationships. • We disentangle patterns of fish trade relationships in a small-scale fishery. • We define five types of fish buyers with three distinct functions. • Fish buyer's types can be associated with different capacities to adapt to changes. • Fish buyer's types may influence fishing patterns and trade differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]