Skip to main content

ASU Global menu

Skip to Content Report an accessibility problem ASU Home My ASU Colleges and Schools Sign In
Arizona State University Arizona State University
ASU Library KEEP

Main navigation

Home Browse Collections Share Your Work
Copyright Describe Your Materials File Formats Open Access Repository Practices Share Your Materials Terms of Deposit API Documentation
Skip to Content Report an accessibility problem ASU Home My ASU Colleges and Schools Sign In
  1. KEEP
  2. Theses and Dissertations
  3. ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
  4. Dimensions of Phosphorus Sustainability: Phosphorus Flows in a Rapidly Growing City and Field Tests of Potential Agricultural Prototypes
  5. Full metadata

Dimensions of Phosphorus Sustainability: Phosphorus Flows in a Rapidly Growing City and Field Tests of Potential Agricultural Prototypes

Full metadata

Description

Phosphorus (P) is a limiting nutrient in ecosystems and is mainly used as fertilizer to grow food. The demand for P is increasing due to the need for increased food supply to support a growing population. However, P is obtained from phosphate rock, a finite resource that takes millions of years to form. These phosphate rock deposits are found in only a few countries. This uneven distribution of phosphate rock leads to a potential imbalance in socio-economic systems, generating food security pressure due to unaffordability of P fertilizer. Thus, the first P-sustainability concern is a stable supply of affordable P fertilizer for agriculture. In addition, improper management of P from field to fork leaves an open end in the global P cycle that results in widespread water pollution. This eutrophication leads to toxic algal blooms and hypoxic “dead zones”. Thus, the second P-sustainability concern involves P pollution from agriculture and cities. This thesis focuses on P flows in a city (Macau as a case study) and on potential strategies for improvements of sustainable P management in city and agriculture. Chapter 2 showed a P-substance-flow analysis for Macau from 1998-2016. Macau is a city with a unique economy build on tourism. The major P flows into Macau were from food, detergent, and sand (for land reclamation). P recovery from wastewater treatment could enhance Macau’s overall P sustainability if the recovered P could be directed towards replacing mined P used to produce food. Chapters 3 and 4 tested a combination of P sustainability management tactics including recycling P from cities and enhancing P-use efficiency (PUE) in agriculture. Algae and biosolids were used as recycled-P fertilizers, and genetically transformed lettuce was used as the a PUE-enhanced crop. This P sustainable system was compared to the conventional agricultural system using commercial fertilizer and the wild type lettuce. Chapters 3 and 4 showed that trying to combine a PUE-enhancement strategy with P recycling did not work well, although organic fertilizers like algae and biosolids may be more beneficial as part of longer-term agricultural practices. This would be a good area for future research.

Date Created
2020
Contributors
  • Chan, Neng Iong (Author)
  • Elser, James J (Thesis advisor)
  • Rittmann, Bruce E. (Thesis advisor)
  • Grimm, Nancy (Committee member)
  • Hall, Sharon J (Committee member)
  • Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
  • Sustainability
  • Algae
  • Biosolids
  • Fractionation
  • Lettuce
  • Phosphorus
  • Sustainability
Resource Type
Text
Genre
Doctoral Dissertation
Academic theses
Extent
154 pages
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.62724
Level of coding
minimal
Note
Doctoral Dissertation Biology 2020
System Created
  • 2020-12-08 11:58:52
System Modified
  • 2022-03-25 05:11:46
  •     
  • 11 months 4 weeks ago
Additional Formats
  • OAI Dublin Core
  • MODS XML

Quick actions

About this item

Overview
 Copy permalink

Explore this item

Explore Document

Share this content

Feedback

ASU University Technology Office Arizona State University.
KEEP

Contact Us

Repository Services
Home KEEP PRISM ASU Research Data Repository
Resources
Terms of Deposit Sharing Materials: ASU Digital Repository Guide Open Access at ASU

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.

Number one in the U.S. for innovation. ASU ahead of MIT and Stanford. - U.S. News and World Report, 8 years, 2016-2023
Maps and Locations Jobs Directory Contact ASU My ASU
Copyright and Trademark Accessibility Privacy Terms of Use Emergency COVID-19 Information