Although a limnologist in Phoenix and a molecular biologist in Atlanta have never met before, a single element ties them together.
James Elser works at Arizona State University and studies aquatic life in lakes and streams. He has developed a fascination for the evolution of life from its earliest beginnings and worries about the damage an overabundance of phosphorus has done to our ecosystems and how its looming depletion will affect our lives.
1 Even if global supplies stretch for the next 300 to 400 years, as the phosphate industry contends, the most easily processed rocks are in ever-shorter supply, and the United States will have exhausted its reserves by 2050. When these reserves run out, the world will become more reliant on deposits that contain a lower concentration of phosphate and are laced with radioactive elements like uranium and thorium, or heavy metals like cadmium. “There is nothing on ...
