Signatures of Biomass Burning Aerosols in the Plume of a Saltmarsh Wildfire in South Texas.

The most conventional and abundant tracers of biomass combustion in aerosol particles include potassium and biomarkers derived from thermally altered cellulose/hemicellulose (anhydrosugars) and lignin (methoxyphenols). However, little is known of the role biomass combustion plays as a particulate source of major plant polymers to the atmosphere. Here, concentrations of solvent-extractable anhydrosugars and methoxyphenols are compared to the yields of polymeric lignin oxidation products (LOPs) during a smoke plume event in Houston, Texas.