Biomass Burning Experiment: Impact on the Atmosphere and Biosphere

OBS: Biomass burning has only recently been recognized as a major source of important trace gases and aerosol particles. Through burning, the chemical elements in vegetation are cycled back to the atmosphere and to soils in chemical and physical forms and proportions which make biomass burning an important biogeochemical process. Before the advent of humans, fire was ignited naturally by lightning strikes in dry vegetated regions. Today, however, the process is driven almost exclusively by human activity which includes the burning of forested areas to facilitate land clearing, the burning of harvest debris to maintain cleared land, the extensive burning of natural grasslands and savannas to sustain nomadic agriculture, and the burning of biomass as fuel for cooking and heating. The importance of biomass burning is well recognized in International Global Atmospheric Chemistry and this activity, Biomass Burning Experiment: Impact on the Atmosphere and Biosphere (BIBEX), was established to address this phenomenon. It is being carried out by a multi-national science team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany.