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1,183 documents from Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research
Desarrollo territorial bajo sequía y cenizas
The text examines social vulnerability in the Patagonian steppe of Río Negro, Argentina, specifically how populations adapt to extreme events such as drought and volcanic ash fall. It argues that there is a disconnect between the material and symbolic capacities of these populations to handle socio-environmental crises and the government projects implemented in the region, which the author claims fail to incorporate an approach that addresses environmental complexity.
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Document type: Research paper
Implications and challenges for the energy sector in Brazil and Mexico to meet the carbon emission reductions committed in their INDC during the COP 21-CMP11
Brazil and Mexico aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 43% and 40% respectively by 2030, goals that require technical innovation, cleaner energy sources, and significant energy policy changes. The document analyzes current and prospective energy mixes and explores the role of renewable energy in achieving these targets while enhancing energy sovereignty and economic benefits.
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Document type: Research paper
Ciudades y sequía en México: la gestión del agua como estrategia crítica de mitigación
The paper argues that drought impacts on Mexican urban water systems are mediated by infrastructure and management rather than being direct effects. It proposes 'adaptive water management' focused on demand as the primary mitigation strategy, identifying the lack of reliable information systems for tracking water loss, consumption, and billing as the main obstacle for water agencies.
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Document type: Research paper
The Urban Water-Energy Nexus: Building Resilience for Global Change in the Urban Century
The text identifies water and energy as the core resources for urban planning within a nexus framework, noting that urbanization creates unique pressures through infrastructure reliance, demographic concentration, and social vulnerabilities. It proposes resilience as a guiding principle for urban management to enhance adaptive capacity amidst global change uncertainties and highlights the need for further research into waste and resource recovery efficiency.
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Document type: Research paper
Evaluation of WRF model forecasts and their use for hydroclimate monitoring over southern South America
The study validates a WRF model with 15 km grid spacing for weather forecasting and hydroclimate monitoring in the La Plata Basin. Testing against observations from August 2012 to July 2014 showed high prediction performance for a 7-day lead-time, with approximately 70% of rain and no-rain days correctly predicted in the basin and temperature correlations exceeding 0.80. The model successfully reproduced observed conditions during a drought in southern Brazil and a high-precipitation season in northeastern Argentina, demonstrating its utility for monitoring soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and runoff.
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Document type: Research paper
Seasonal and diel variations in the activity of canopy insect herbivores differ between deciduous and evergreen plant species in a tropical dry forest
The study found that herbivorous insects in a Brazilian tropical dry forest exhibit higher diversity during the dry season, with evergreen trees supporting greater richness and abundance than deciduous trees. Additionally, insects showed increased nocturnal activity during the dry season to avoid harsh daytime conditions, suggesting that evergreen species are critical for insect conservation in these ecosystems.
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Document type: Research paper
Evolution of water resources in the Bajo de Sarmiento extraandean Patagonia natural and anthropogenic impacts
The study analyzes the hydrogeomorphological dynamics of the Bajo de Sarmiento basin from the Holocene to the present, combining geological data, satellite imagery, and social surveys. It finds that while climate variability and aridity have historically been the primary drivers of water body dynamics, human activities over the last 120 years have intensified these effects, resulting in a shift from an exorheic to an endorheic basin regime and the near-disappearance of one of the lakes by 2016.
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Document type: Research paper
Lecciones de cuatro meta-análisis globales sobre la restauración de la biodiversidad y los servicios ecosistémicos
The document reports that ecological restoration significantly increases biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) compared to degraded states, although they often remain below reference levels. While agroecosystems and certain forest services show high recovery, wetlands and forest biodiversity lag behind reference benchmarks. A positive correlation exists between biodiversity and ES recovery, but quantitative data on cultural ES is lacking.
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Document type: Research paper
Variability and 20-year trends in satellite-derived surface chlorophyll concentrations in large marine ecosystems around South and Western Central America
The study analyzed chlorophyll concentrations from 1997 to 2017 using SeaWiFS and MODIS Aqua data across four Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). It found significant increases in chlorophyll concentrations in large portions of the Patagonia (PLME) and Humboldt (HLME) ecosystems, while increases in the South Brazil (SBLME) and Pacific Coastal Central America (PCACLME) ecosystems were limited to smaller regions.
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Document type: Research paper
Periurbanization, agricultural livelihoods and ejidatarios: social capital lessons from a periphery municipality in Michoacán, Mexico
The research examines how social capital, formed through formal and informal institutionalized relationships, helps poor farmers maintain agricultural livelihoods amidst the territorial transformations caused by urban expansion. Focusing on fifteen ejidos in a municipality near Morelia, Mexico, the study uses interviews with ejidal presidents to analyze how trust, reciprocity, and social engagement mobilize resources. The findings emphasize the role of local institutional and non-institutional arrangements in regulating resource access and distribution in peri-urban areas.
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Document type: Research paper
Barriers and Solutions to Conducting Large International Interdisciplinary Research Projects
A study of an NSF-PIRE research project involving team members in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico identified five primary barriers to international interdisciplinary research: integration, language, fieldwork logistics, personnel and relationships, and time commitment.
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Document type: Research paper
How social capital enables or restricts the livelihoods of poor peri-urban farmers in Mexico
The research investigates how social capital influences the transformation of livelihoods for low-income farmers in Mexico's peri-urban areas as they adapt to increasing urbanization. The findings highlight the role of informal institutions and non-institutional mechanisms in regulating and distributing resource access in these regions.
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Document type: Research paper
Land-atmosphere interaction patterns in southeastern South America using satellite products and climate models
The study identifies southeastern South America (SESA), specifically the Pampas ecoregion, as a strong land-atmosphere (L-A) interaction hotspot. Using AMSRE-LPRM soil moisture and MODIS land surface temperature products alongside climate models, the research found that L-A interactions are more intense and cover a larger spatial extent during dry summers compared to wet summers. While both X and C band soil moisture data identify the same hotspot location, they differ in intensity due to ecoregion characteristics.
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Document type: Research paper
Interception of rainfall in successional tropical dry forests in Brazil and Costa Rica
The study analyzed rainfall interception in early, intermediate, and late successional stages of tropical dry forests in Costa Rica and Brazil. In Brazil's Mata Seca State Park, net rainfall remained relatively stable between 79.3% and 85.4% across stages, influenced by high liana density. In Costa Rica's Santa Rosa National Park, net rainfall decreased significantly as succession progressed, from 87.5% in early stages to 63.4% in late stages, correlating negatively with the plant area index.
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Document type: Research paper
Can terrestrial laser scanners (TLSs) and hemispherical photographs predict tropical dry forest succession with liana abundance?
The study examines the effectiveness of terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) and hemispherical photographs (HPs) in predicting the structure of tropical dry forests (TDFs) across different successional stages. While these tools can identify structural differences between successional stages, the researchers found that these predictive differences disappear as liana abundance increases, suggesting that lianas create structural biases in the forest.
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Document type: Research paper
Scaling copepod grazing in a coastal upwelling system: the importance of community size structure for phytoplankton C flux
The study demonstrates that copepod grazing is a size-dependent process where communities dominated by small-sized species significantly increase the efficiency of carbon transfer from phytoplankton compared to communities dominated by larger species.
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Document type: Research paper
Historical Analysis of Riparian Vegetation Change in Response to Shifting Management Objectives on the Middle Rio Grande
The study analyzes how river management and climate fluctuations influenced riparian vegetation in the San Acacia Reach of the Middle Rio Grande between 1935 and 2014, finding that reduced surface flows and limited flooding likely increased non-native vegetation coverage, though recent restoration efforts are reversing this trend.
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Document type: Research paper
Atitudes e percepções de gestores ambientais da zona costeira de SP frente às mudanças climáticas
The research identifies a gap between the increasing concern of environmental managers in São Paulo's coastal zone regarding climate change impacts and the actual implementation of public policies for mitigation and adaptation.
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Document type: Research paper
Mobilizing Transdisciplinary Collaborations: Collective Reflections on Decentering Academia in Knowledge Production
The document argues that addressing global sustainability challenges—such as extreme weather and biodiversity loss—requires integrated knowledge produced through collaborations between scientists and diverse stakeholders, including government and corporate entities. It specifically focuses on the need for 'collective unlearning' to reduce the central role of academia and ensure practitioners are positioned more equitably within these research partnerships.
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Document type: Research paper
Procesos colaborativos en acción: la provisión de servicios climáticos y la elaboración de pronósticos por impacto en el sur de Sudamérica
The text describes the use of collaborative research networks—comprising academics, experts, officials, and social agents—to mitigate extreme climate events like droughts. It specifically highlights two projects: one providing climate services for southern South America and another creating a regional drought monitoring, prediction, and early warning system in the southwest of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
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Document type: Research paper