An American limnologist whose ecosystem research has shown how overfishing of a top predator like cod can eventually lead to algae bloom has been awarded the $150,000 Stockholm Water Prize for 2011.
Stephen R. Carpenter, Professor of Zoology and Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was cited for his “groundbreaking research which has shown how lake ecosystems are affected by the surrounding landscape and by human activities”.
“His findings have formed the basis for concrete solutions on how to manage lakes”, the prize-awarding international committee, appointed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, added.
Carpenter’s models have been used to at least partly explain the algae bloom phenomenon that has been plaguing the Baltic coasts in recent summers: the reduction of the cod stocks, the top predator, has led to an abundance of sprat, a food source for the cod; the abundance of sprat has led to less phytoplankton, the lack of phytoplankton causing an abundance of zooplankton, a factor in algae bloom.
“Carpenter may not have been the first to show interest in that link, but he was the first to build a whole theory around it”, Lars Tranvik, a limnology professor at Uppsala University and member of the jury, told the media.
The winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, is announced each March in connection with the UN World Water Day. The laureate is honoured each autumn at a ceremony and banquet in the Stockholm City Hall during the World Water Week in Stockholm.