Emission factors for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from laboratory biomass-burning and their chemical transformations during aging in an oxidation flow reactor

Sengupta, Deep; Samburova, Vera; Bhattarai, Chiranjivi; Moosmüller, Hans; Khlystov, Andrey

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161857

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 113 publications

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“…It is well known that wildfires affect flora and fauna [1][2][3][4][5], burn various fuels [6], and emit large quantities of gases (e.g., CO 2 and CO) and particles (e.g., black [7], brown [8,9], and organic carbon [10][11][12]) that are further modified during atmospheric transport [13][14][15][16]. Wildfires greatly affect air quality [17][18][19], human health [18,20,21], cloud formation and properties [22,23], and atmospheric light absorption and radiative forcing in the atmosphere [24][25][26] and after deposition onto snow [27,28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modification of Soil Hydroscopic and Chemical Properties Caused by Four Recent California, USA Megafires

Samburova,

Schneider,

Rüger

et al. 2023

Fire

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While it is well known that wildfires can greatly contribute to soil water repellency by changing soil chemical composition, the mechanisms of these changes are still poorly understood. In the past decade, the number, size, and intensity of wildfires have greatly increased in the western USA. Recent megafires in California (i.e., the Dixie, Beckwourth Complex, Caldor, and Mosquito fires) provided us with an opportunity to characterize pre- and post-fire soils and to study the effects of fires on soil water repellency, soil organic constituents, and connections between the two. Water drop penetration time (WDPT) tests performed in the field showed a significant increase (from <1 s up to >600 s) in WDPT from pre- to post-fire soils. This increase in soil water repellency after fires was confirmed by increases in apparent contact angle (ACA) between 1.1 and 9 times from unburned to burned soils. The chemical characterization of burned soils with high resolution mass spectrometry showed the increased abundance of hydrophobic organics (e.g., PAH-like compounds and organic molecules with a low number of oxygen atoms) as well as the correlation of the average H/C ratio and aromaticity index (AI) with ACA. Most likely, these compounds contribute to post-fire soil water repellency that triggers hydrological effects such as landslides, flooding, and debris flows.

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