Where Do All the Salmon Go? and Making CO2 Bricks

This podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection looks at how scientists are using fish scales to figure out why the UK salmon population is falling; and how carbon dioxide emissions from power stations could be used to make household bricks.

Salmon numbers have been dropping since the 1970s. But, somewhat surprisingly, this decline has got nothing to do with overfishing. Scientists have recently discovered that, instead, it seems this is down to unexplained deaths out at sea. Their plan is now to protect the adults while they are still in the ocean to prevent their numbers dropping still further. The problem is finding out where to find them.

Researchers from the University of Southampton have now developed a technique to answer that very question. Sue Nelson goes to the River Tess in Hampshire in southern England to meet them, and find out more.

Carbon capture and storage is being touted as one of the most promising ways to cut CO2 levels in our atmosphere. The idea is to capture the gas as it's released from power stations and pump it deep underground. But what if you could do something more useful with it, like turn it into bricks? Richard Hollingham goes to the University of Nottingham to find out more about this emerging technology, dubbed carbon capture and utilisation.

A transcript of the recording is provided to assist those who find text-based content more accessible than audio.

This podcast is dated 11 August 2011.

NERC is a part of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) partnership of research councils.