Steve Carpenter and The Cascade Project

Since the early 1980s Steve Carpenter has a led team of researchers in a series of whole lake manipulation studies collectively called the Cascade Project. Important contributions from this work include the findings that: 1) strong predatory-prey interactions propagate through food webs and influence primary productivity, 2) food web structure can limit production across a wide nutrient loading gradient, 3) terrestrial organic carbon supports lake foods, 4) ecosystems approaching thresholds exhibit warnings, and 5) ecological resilience is measurable by the duration of states. Carpenter employed two primary research strategies in conducting this work. The first involved creating whole lake experiments to set up sharp contrasts. Manipulations included top-predator removals, plantivorous fish additions, curtaining of lakes, additions of inorganic nutrients, additions of carbon stable isotopes, and lake darkening. These ambitious manipulations mostly worked but occasionally went awry with unintended consequences for which Carpenter coined the term “expect surprise!” A second research strategy was developing models related to the lake manipulations.  These models informed: hypotheses, experimental design, data analysis, and syntheses of key ideas. Carpenter’s models were rarely just the elaboration of equations but instead were tightly strung to data. The Cascade Project was successful because the program addressed important, general questions and because of strong collaborations. Team members shared common goals, worked hard, spent time together, and felt their contribution to the enterprise. The effectiveness of these teams was not an accident but part of Carpenter’s ability to, not only see scientific frontiers, but also motivate others and help them succeed.

Primary Presenter: Michael Pace, University of Virginia (mlp5fy@virginia.edu)

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