Meet the FIRETRAC project and Mingchen Wei

The FIRETRAC project addresses the growing but poorly understood impact of biomass burning and wildfire–derived airborne particles on marine carbon cycling in the context of climate change. While black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC) aerosols are known to affect air quality, human health, and climate, their fate and role in the ocean—particularly their influence on the biological carbon pump (BCP), a key regulator of atmospheric CO₂—remain largely unexplored. Substantial inputs of BB-derived particles to the ocean may alter the composition, transformation, and sequestration of organic carbon, yet existing evidence suggests these compounds can persist for long timescales in marine organic matter. FIRETRAC aims to fill this knowledge gap by characterizing key BB tracers, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and anhydrosugars, using carbon isotopes, wet chemistry, microbiology, and modeling, thereby providing new insights into how biomass burning emissions influence marine biogeochemistry and climate regulation.

Here see Mr.Minchegn Wei discus his work on quantifying the oxidative potential (OP) of atmospheric filter samples he collected at southern France. The measurements of OP shown here are carried out at LAPI@FORTH in Patras. Oxidative Potential (OP) is important for understanding the public health and ecosystem impacts of particulate matter exposure, and the observations carried out here are important for understanding the levels of OP and the sources that contribute to it. Mingchen is a PhD Stuent from Aix-Marseilles University and EPFL, supported by FIRETRAC and co-supervised by Dr. Christos Panagiotopoulos (MIO,Aix-Marseilles) and Dr. Athanasios Nenes (EPFL, FORTH). The OP measurements were supervised by Dr.Carolina Molina from LAPI@FORTH. The OP measurements were possible thanks to the funding from the European Research Council and the project PyroTRACH.