FINAL REPORT

The CRN program established multidisciplinary international research networks to study climate variability, ecosystem functioning, and human dimensions of global change in the Americas. Key achievements include the development of high-resolution climate reconstructions using tree rings, the identification of critical soil degradation thresholds in semiarid regions, and the creation of disaster risk databases for ENSO events. The program emphasized capacity building, supporting over 600 students and producing hundreds of peer-reviewed publications, while fostering South-South and North-South scientific collaborations.

• In northeastern Brazil, high soil organic matter turnover rates (less than 50 years) and severe erosion—estimated at 220 to 268 kg soil m-2 since the 1960s—make soils highly susceptible to degradation, though rapid carbon turnover often obscures these processes.
• Research in La Pampa province revealed that tropical soils have significantly faster carbon turnover (half-lives of 10 to 12 years) compared to North American temperate grasslands (50 to over 100 years), and some degraded soils showed a 'threshold of irreversibility' where they could not recover original organic matter levels through pasture reclamation.
• In the Patagonian steppe, there is a strong positive correlation between species richness (biodiversity) and net primary productivity, a relationship more pronounced than in artificially constructed communities because these ecosystems are intact and undisturbed.
• Dendrochronological research established a 1,000-year chronology in Queretaro, Mexico (969–2004), and identified a significant drought period between 1100 and 1160 that coincided with the decline of the Toltec empire.
• The program developed the DESINVENTAR database, which documents damaging hydrometeorological events from 1970 to 2003 across eight countries, providing high-resolution spatial data at the municipality and district levels to help decision-makers understand social vulnerability to ENSO.
• Climate modeling for tropical South America identified two stable equilibrium states: the current biome distribution and an alternative state where savannas replace tropical forests in eastern Amazonia and semi-deserts replace dry shrub land in northeast Brazil.
• Analysis of the Andean Amazon rivers in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia showed that while water quality is generally high, degradation occurs near towns discharging raw sewage and in areas of intense agriculture, with the highest suspended solids found in the Orteguaza (435 ppm) and Mocoa (413 ppm) basins.
• The CRN program significantly expanded regional scientific capacity, supporting 619 students in completing degrees and facilitating the participation of 1,954 students and young professionals in 177 workshops.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (n.d.). FINAL REPORT. https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/iai-cop-14-directorate-report-annex6.pdf

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. FINAL REPORT. n.d. https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/iai-cop-14-directorate-report-annex6.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=FINAL REPORT |url=https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/iai-cop-14-directorate-report-annex6.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearchndfinal, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{FINAL REPORT}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, url = {https://archive.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/iai-cop-14-directorate-report-annex6.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }