CRADLE TO CRADLE: CYCLES OF LEARNING IN LAKES AND WATERSHEDS

The talk is a synthesis of 51 years of projects on whole ecosystems (rivers, lakes, watersheds, a planet).  Projects were whole-ecosystem experiments, ‘what if’ studies of possible disturbances or paths of change, or ‘what happened’ assessments of responses to changes caused by people or nature. (1) Teamwork of scientists, managers and the public is essential. (2) Shared work outdoors and shared credit foster teams. (3) Use ecosystem concepts (boundaries, time frame, cycles, residence times, turnover rates, stability, resilience) to build models.  (4) Test your idea in models before you collect data. (5) If you use another team’s data then read metadata carefully, contact them about questions, and share credit. (6) To measure resilience bend it until it breaks. Consider restoration costs before experimenting.  (7) Policy is not a recipe, it’s a hypothesis to be tested. (8) Make predictions and learn when they are incorrect. (9) Expect to be surprised.   

Primary Presenter: Stephen Carpenter, University of Wisconsin - Madison (Steve.Carpenter@wisc.edu)

Authors:

Stephen Carpenter, University of Wisconsin - Madison  (steve.carpenter@wisc.edu)