This research examines landscape change associated with the waste outputs of the phosphate fertilizer industry in Central Florida. In this region, phosphate rock is mined, converted into fertilizer, and used abundantly in agriculture. Phosphate mining and the clay wastes it produces have radically transformed terrestrial landscapes in Bone Valley, the region?s phosphate mining district. Agricultural application of phosphate fertilizer has, through runoff, transformed aquatic ecosystems throughout the peninsula. In both terrestrial and aquatic zones, researchers and managers are attempting projects of reclamation and restoration. This research examines such projects in the contexts of Bone Valley and Lake Apopka, a large shallow lake undergoing restoration.
Through 15 months of research in Central Florida, Mr. Caple will conduct ethnographic interviews with reclamation and restoration scientists; do archival work; and landscape mapping projects to create an account that includes an environmental histories of local agriculture and mining; knowledge practices of waste-landscape researchers and managers; and multispecies interactions on existing landscapes. The knowledge gained from his research will have practical implications for Central Florida?s phosphorus management, as well as phosphorus landscapes around the world.
