ACADEMICS at Lancaster University have taken delivery of more than £500,000 in research grants plus 8.5 tons of soil from a Kansas prairie!

The imported prairie soil will help the researchers measure if trees and forests can continue to absorb the world's increasing carbon emissions.

With £300,000 of funding from the National Environment Research Council, the researchers at Bailrigg have set up an experiment which they hope will tell them how much carbon trees are taking in from the air and depositing in the soil and which species of trees might be better at taking in carbon.

And Lancaster University is also leading the way in high tech radio wave research with Bailrigg receiving a share of more than £1.6 million of Government funds.

This money will be used to exploit the commercial and industrial applications of radio wave research - with the potential value to the UK economy being as much as £1 billion.

The potential benefits could include the development of equipment to be used for improved X-ray, electron and Ion therapy, security examinations, breaking down waste in a quick, environmentally friendly way and providing new opportunities in the communications and media world.

Both grants continue Lancaster's growing reputation as a national centre of excellence for research.

Explaining how the Kansas soil was used, James Heath from Lancaster University's Biology Field Station said: "The large scale experiment took 18 months to set up and young trees are now growing in 12 special greenhouses called Solardomes at the Biology Field Station and researchers hope to measure how much carbon trees take in and transfer to the soil. By using the imported soil, they can trace the changes in the total amount of carbon stored below ground. Many countries such as USA, Japan, Australia and Canada want to be allowed to use so-called 'carbon sinks' to off-set their CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Environmentalists are worried that there is a limit to the amount of carbon that forests can absorb and that the soil may soon reach saturation point."

Commenting on the radio wave research grant, which was announced by Science Minister Lord Sainsbury, Prof Richard Carter from Lancaster University's Engineering Department said: "This will be a real boost to British research in a field that has been neglected in recent years. It will enable the internationally recognised work already being carried out by research groups at Lancaster, Strathclyde, Oxford and Cambridge Universities to be built into a world-class partnership for the benefit of British Industry."