About

Stephen R. Carpenter is a Scientist, Emeritus Director of the Center for Limnology, and Emeritus Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His limnological research focuses on the interaction of biogeochemistry and food web processes in lakes, with particular interest in predicting lake characteristics from land-water interactions and food web processes, including human effects such as fishing and the introduction of exotic species. His work is connected to projects such as the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER), Trophic Cascade, and Water, Sustainability and Climate initiatives. Carpenter collaborates with institutions like the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm Resilience Center, and Resilience Alliance to study the resilience of linked social-ecological systems. He has received numerous awards, including the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology in 2018, the Stockholm Water Prize in 2011, and the Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award from ASLO in 2019. Carpenter has served on the founding board of the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability (SARAS) and has been recognized for his contributions to ecology and limnology.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Ecology
• Computer Science
• Biology
• Economics
• Environmental resource management
• Business
• Sociology
• Environmental ethics
• Environmental science
• Geography
• Microeconomics
• Public economics
• Social Science
• Environmental planning
• Computer Security
• Philosophy
• Public relations
• Finance
• Psychology
• Management science
• Economic system
• Mathematics
• Demography

Selected publications

• A heart model of <i>Earth Stewardship</i>

  Earth stewardship. · 2024 · 4 citations

  • Political Science
  • Environmental science
  • Political Science

  Abstract Few disagree that we should pass on the Earth in good shape to future generations, and many scientists want their work to contribute to that goal. Recent work has shown that hopelessness stands in the way of people taking an active attitude. At the same time, it is becoming clear what can be done about that: providing compelling visions of attractive futures and highlighting feasible pathways. Currently, science and the humanities are not well designed for this task. Practices that stand in the way of a more holistic change‐making approach include proposal‐based funding, paralyzing rigor requirements, and a focus on explanation rather than action. Removing those barriers may require culture shifts, a notoriously difficult and slow kind of change. Meanwhile, realistic inspiring future scenarios can be developed by bringing diverse thinkers together in environments where time, space, and immediate outcomes are not pressing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Response diversity as a sustainability strategy

  Nature Sustainability · 2023 · 69 citations

  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Business
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Earth stewardship: Shaping a sustainable future through interacting policy and norm shifts

  AMBIO · 2022 · 73 citations

  • Political Science
  • Economic system
  • Business

  Transformation toward a sustainable future requires an earth stewardship approach to shift society from its current goal of increasing material wealth to a vision of sustaining built, natural, human, and social capital-equitably distributed across society, within and among nations. Widespread concern about earth's current trajectory and support for actions that would foster more sustainable pathways suggests potential social tipping points in public demand for an earth stewardship vision. Here, we draw on empirical studies and theory to show that movement toward a stewardship vision can be facilitated by changes in either policy incentives or social norms. Our novel contribution is to point out that both norms and incentives must change and can do so interactively. This can be facilitated through leverage points and complementarities across policy areas, based on values, system design, and agency. Potential catalysts include novel democratic institutions and engagement of non-governmental actors, such as businesses, civic leaders, and social movements as agents for redistribution of power. Because no single intervention will transform the world, a key challenge is to align actions to be synergistic, persistent, and scalable.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere

  AMBIO · 2021 · 660 citations

  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Environmental ethics

  The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed an interconnected and tightly coupled globalized world in rapid change. This article sets the scientific stage for understanding and responding to such change for global sustainability and resilient societies. We provide a systemic overview of the current situation where people and nature are dynamically intertwined and embedded in the biosphere, placing shocks and extreme events as part of this dynamic; humanity has become the major force in shaping the future of the Earth system as a whole; and the scale and pace of the human dimension have caused climate change, rapid loss of biodiversity, growing inequalities, and loss of resilience to deal with uncertainty and surprise. Taken together, human actions are challenging the biosphere foundation for a prosperous development of civilizations. The Anthropocene reality-of rising system-wide turbulence-calls for transformative change towards sustainable futures. Emerging technologies, social innovations, broader shifts in cultural repertoires, as well as a diverse portfolio of active stewardship of human actions in support of a resilient biosphere are highlighted as essential parts of such transformations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Climate change, ecosystems and abrupt change: science priorities

  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2020 · 369 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science
  • Environmental resource management
  • Ecology

  Ecologists have long studied patterns, directions and tempos of change, but there is a pressing need to extend current understanding to empirical observations of abrupt changes as climate warming accelerates. Abrupt changes in ecological systems (ACES)-changes that are fast in time or fast relative to their drivers-are ubiquitous and increasing in frequency. Powerful theoretical frameworks exist, yet applications in real-world landscapes to detect, explain and anticipate ACES have lagged. We highlight five insights emerging from empirical studies of ACES across diverse ecosystems: (i) ecological systems show ACES in some dimensions but not others; (ii) climate extremes may be more important than mean climate in generating ACES; (iii) interactions among multiple drivers often produce ACES; (iv) contingencies, such as ecological memory, frequency and sequence of disturbances, and spatial context are important; and (v) tipping points are often (but not always) associated with ACES. We suggest research priorities to advance understanding of ACES in the face of climate change. Progress in understanding ACES requires strong integration of scientific approaches (theory, observations, experiments and process-based models) and high-quality empirical data drawn from a diverse array of ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions'.

  DOI

• Our Future in the Anthropocene Biosphere: Global sustainability and resilient societies

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2020 · 21 citations

  • Political Science
  • Environmental ethics
  • Environmental planning
  PublisherDOI

• Principles for knowledge co-production in sustainability research

  Nature Sustainability · 2020 · 1516 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Engineering ethics
  • Knowledge management
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Social dimensions of fertility behavior and consumption patterns in the Anthropocene

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 54 citations

  • Sociology
  • Social Science
  • Economics

  162, 1243-1248 (1968)] drew attention to overpopulation and concluded that the solution lay in people "abandoning the freedom to breed." That human attitudes and practices are socially embedded suggests that it is possible for people to reduce their fertility rates and consumption demands without experiencing a loss in wellbeing. We focus on fertility in sub-Saharan Africa and consumption in the rich world and argue that bottom-up social mechanisms rather than top-down government interventions are better placed to bring about those ecologically desirable changes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Navigating the chaos of an unfolding global cycle

  Ecology and Society · 2020 · 41 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Ecology
  • Geography

  Walker, B., S. R. Carpenter, C. Folke, L. Gunderson, G. D. Peterson, M. Scheffer, M. Schoon, and F. R. Westley. 2020. Navigating the chaos of an unfolding global cycle. Ecology and Society 25(4):23. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12072-250423

  DOI

Recent grants

• LTER: Comparative Study of a Suite of Lakes in Wisconsin

  NSF · $7.3M · 2002–2011

• Collaborative Research: Leading Indicators of Regime Shift - an Ecosystem Experiment

  NSF · $570k · 2007–2013

• OPUS: Collaborative Research: Analysis of Cross-Boundary Fluxes, Trophic Cascades and Ecosystem Stability Based on 32 Years of Whole-Lake Experiments

  NSF · $129k · 2015–2020

• Collaborative Research: Terrestrial Carbon Subsidies of Aquatic Food Webs

  NSF · $596k · 2004–2009

• Biocomplexity: Divergent Dynamics: Complex Interactions of Riparian Land, People and Lakes

  NSF · $3.1M · 2000–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Carl Folke

  Stockholm University

  119 shared

• Michael L. Pace

  University of Virginia

  75 shared

• James F. Kitchell

  63 shared

• Johan Rockström

  Stockholm University

  58 shared

• Nancy B. Grimm

  Arizona State University

  53 shared

• Jonathan J. Cole

  Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

  50 shared

• John E. Hobbie

  49 shared

• James R. Gosz

  University of Idaho

  49 shared

Labs

• Center for Limnology – UW–MadisonPI

Education

• Ph.D., Zoology

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  1982

• M.S., Zoology

  University of Wisconsin-Madison

  1977

• B.S., Zoology

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1975

Awards & honors

• Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology (2018)
• ASLO 2019 Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award
• Asahi Glass Foundation's 31st Blue Planet Prize (2022)
• Laureate of the Stockholm Water Prize (2011)