Effects of climate change and especially the associated climate variability require farmers to adjust to increasing frequencies of extreme events. In the agriculturally highly productive Romanian Plain, the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves and drought have increased over the past 20 years. Although recent surveys revealed farmers’ awareness of climate change and enumerated a number of farm adaptation measures in the Romanian context, a systems approach to adaptation that allows conclusions on farm vulnerability and adaptive capacity is missing. Here, we use archetypal analysis to elucidate and characterize for the first time the types of adaptation responses of arable farmers in southern Romania. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 farmers managing 51,500 ha located across the southern lowlands of Romania, selected for their diversity of management approaches. Farmers were asked about experienced climatic disturbances, crop production losses during the most extreme events over the past 5–10 years, and the adaptation measures they implemented over that period of time. In addition, structural characteristics of the farm were recorded. The adaptation measures were classified and mapped on the efficiency, substitution, and redesign gradient used to classify sustainability stages. Results revealed three archetypes of adaptation, consisting of measures at field and farm level ranging from predominantly efficiency-enhancing ones (e.g., crop choice and management and risk insurance) to complete farm redesign involving agrotechnical and financial management changes. Structural farm characteristics did not explain differences between farms in their association with one of the archetypes. Our approach and results show for the first time both the need for strengthening farmer-level support in one of Europe’s key food production areas and the lessons that can be drawn from the outlier adaptation examples. Current European and national policies offer opportunities for farmer organizations in Romania to make these conclusions actionable.

气候变化的影响，特别是相关的气候变化，要求农民适应日益频繁的极端事件。在农业高产的罗马尼亚平原，热浪和干旱的频率、强度和持续时间在过去 20 年中有所增加。尽管最近的调查揭示了农民对气候变化的认识，并列举了罗马尼亚背景下的一些农场适应措施，但缺乏一种能够得出农场脆弱性和适应能力结论的系统适应方法。在这里，我们首次使用原型分析来阐明和描述罗马尼亚南部耕种农民的适应反应类型。我们对位于罗马尼亚南部低地的 30 名管理着 51,500 公顷土地的农民进行了半结构化访谈，他们的选择是因为他们的管理方法多样化。农民被问及经历过的气候扰动、过去 5 至 10 年最极端事件期间的作物产量损失，以及他们在那段时间采取的适应措施。此外，还记录了农场的结构特征。适应措施根据效率、替代和重新设计梯度进行分类和映射，用于对可持续性阶段进行分类。结果揭示了三种适应原型，包括田间和农场层面的措施，从主要提高效率的措施（例如作物选择和管理以及风险保险）到涉及农业技术和财务管理变革的完整农场重新设计。农场的结构特征并不能解释农场之间与其中一种原型相关的差异。 我们的方法和结果首次表明，在欧洲主要粮食生产地区加强农民层面的支持的必要性，以及可以从异常适应例子中汲取的经验教训。当前的欧洲和国家政策为罗马尼亚农民组织提供了使这些结论具有可操作性的机会。