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In the context of high and increasing rainfall variability in southern South America, animal production systems in subtropical Campos grasslands would benefit from adaptive drought management. To better understand the ability of forage species to cope with, and recover from, water stress episodes of variable intensity, a greenhouse experiment was carried out to evaluate two C3 grasses (Bromus auleticus, Lolium arundinaceum) and three C4 grasses (Andropogon lateralis, Paspalum dilatatum, P. notatum). To asse ss resistance to water deficit, plants growing in individual 12-L pots were kept for 52 days at four levels of constant water availability: 10, 30, 50 and 70% of soil field capacity (SFC). To assess the recovery capacity, pots were re-watered and maintained for 42 days at a constant 75% SFC. During the stress phase, the minimum proportion of SFC that allowed maximum forage productivity was lowest in P. notatum (39%), intermediate in P. dilatatum (50%), B. auleticus (61%) and A. lateralis (64%), and highest in L. arundinaceum (70%). During the recovery phase, the minimum proportion of SFC from which maximum growth was re-attained was ~30% in all species, except for P. notatum, which was able to fully recover even from the 10% SFC treatment. Therefore, species differed in their ability to resist drought, but less so in their capacity to recover post-stress, with the notable exception of P. notatum, which exhibited the lowest critical soil moisture for both resistance and recovery. Integrated with information on the potential of each species to stockpile forage, these results could inform the design of adaptative drought management strategies targeted to specific plant communities of the highly divers e Campos grassland, so that extensive animal production systems can be effectively buffered from recurrent, frequent, but difficult to predict in their timing and intensity, episodes of water deficits.