1. Global Change Science: How can we get more
Latin American scientists doing it at home?
Esteban Jobbágy & Gervasio Piñeiro
GEA, Universidad Nacional de San Luis & CONICET
IFEVA, Universidad de Buenos Aires & CONICET
Argentina
CRN 2031 – Land Use Change in the Plata Basin: Trends, Drivers & Impacts
5 year project – , 18 CoPI, Ar-Br-Py-Uy-US

2. Among LA countries, Argentina has the largest % of scientist working
abroad
12500 in the US vs at home
CEPAL 2005, NSF 2001
[Scientists] per capita (ppm)
Argentina 715
Brazil 315
Mexico 217
China 633
France 2982
US 5085
Cetto & Vessuri – Unesco 2005
The problem: Shortage of resources…

3. $ per scientist, % GNP

4. HYP: More fundamental aspects constrain (Global Change)
Science growth in LA.
They may stem from long term poor funding
but today generate barriers in itself,
(they cannot be removed just by increasing funding)
3 Cultural Barriers
3 Local Opportunities
CRN Plata Basin
3 Cultural Barriers
3 Local Opportunities
CRN Plata Basin

5. Barrier
Stagnant Academic Communities
LOCATION - e.g. at U.N.S.L ~95% Professors graduated there
within colleges, departments, and even teams
difficulties for foreign researchers / professors…?
DISCIPLINE - Global Change Issues fit within
Biology / Earth Science / Social Science / Ag&Forestry
NSF cross-cutting lines, missing in most LA programs
Scientific Unions & Journals show similar trend
Most universities too
DEMOGRAPHY - Aging academic population, lack of merit based openings
Ag Sciences in ARG
INTA (=USDA): 50% > 55 y/o
National Univs: 20% >55y/o, 62% y/o

6. Barrier
“Inferiority” Complex
Doing science of international relevance and excellence is not an option at home
Motivated people that want to do it, look for it abroad
But…
Local academic communities perceive
their skills, connections and credentials as “superior” and therefore risky
resistance mechanism operate

7. Barrier
Science-Society Isolation
Do societies acknowledge the value of Global Change Science?
Are scientist good at creating a demand?
Do we try to couple Excellence and Relevance?

8. 3 Cultural Barriers
3 Local Opportunities
CRN Plata
3 Cultural Barriers
3 Local Opportunities
CRN Plata Basin

9. Opportunities
Complementary
Perspective
Every day life experience, besides the science that we read, influences the questions that we ask, and the paths that we chose to address them (diversity of perspectives)
Complementary
“labs”
Key situations for better global understanding
CLIMATE: Meso-scale convective systems
ECOSYSTEMS: Low N deposition temperate environments
SOCIETY-LAND: Ag expansion over natural vegetation
Highly (cost) efficient
research
Active research teams in LA developed skills to manage
science under low and highly fluctuating resources

10. 3 Cultural Barriers
3 Local Opportunities
CRN Plata Basin
3 Cultural Barriers
3 Local Opportunities
CRN Plata Basin

11. Regional PhDs … Itinerant post-docs Focusing on grad
students is not enough
Ugliest barriers
show up later
Itinerant post-docs
Network + 5-yr time frame
should warrant a successful careers at home

12. disperse (but abundant) capacities
S-S collaboration
disperse (but abundant) capacities
mapping and linking

13. LechuSA (Land Ecosystem Change Utility for South America) provides tools for the identification and understanding of functional changes in the ecosystems of South America during the last 25 years and offers an environment for the exchange and collaboration among scientists who study them in different regions and from different perspectives