Phosphorus: Too Much or Too Little Scientists and artists
collaborate on accompanying works to address looming
environmental issue Fertilizer is rarely an inspiration for an
art show, at Arizona State University (ASU), where
sustainability, fertilizer and phosphorus scarcity provide fuel
for creative vision. The art show, a juried exhibition with
works by artists from Phoenix, Chicago, Portland and Houston,
was created in partnership with scientists engaged in the
Sustainable Phosphorus Summit, to take place Feb. 3-5, 2011, at
ASU. Ericka Cero Wood's artwork highlights this week's
Sustainable Phosphorus Summit. "We need to be concerned about
the emerging threat of phosphorus scarcity, as well as the
impacts of too much phosphorus through run-off into lakes and
oceans," says Matt Kane, program director in NSF's Division of
Environmental Biology, which supports the phosphorus summit.
Human activities have increased bioavailable phosphorus in the
environment, or phosphorus from runoff, by some 400 percent, but
t