Mazzer, Paula

• Ph.D., Chemistry, Kent State University, Kent, OH

•  B.A., Biology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

     Forest fires can devastate large regions of wildland, endangering the lives of both humans and wildlife. Smoke particulates generated by fires, as well as charred material remaining after the fire, consist of a large mixture of semi-graphitic organic carbon compounds or structures, often collectively referred to as "black carbon". Black carbon is very long-lived in the environment ("refractory"), and can be found in ocean or lake sediment cores or ice cores from glaciers centuries after major fire events.
      Our question is this: What ecotoxicological effects may be caused by fresh runoff from major wildland fires? We have several samples of biochar generated from different species of wood and under different conditions. We want to know if the dissolved black carbon generated by runoff from fire events harms the surrounding environment. Initial research from summer 2024 demonstrated that biochar generated from different starting materials and different environmental conditions resulted in very different toxicity to our model aquatic organism, Daphnia magna. Ongoing studies will explore the mechanisms of toxicity, using both enzymatic and toxicogenomic approaches, to help explain the differences between biochar samples.