Achievement

Fernanda Santos studied the deposition rates of Black Carbon (BC) at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Black carbon, a product of the incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels, is present in the atmosphere in the form of aerosols, and is likely the second largest anthropogenic contributor to global warming. However the deposition rates of BC in temperate forests has not been well studied. Fernanda found that BC accounted for 2-3% of the total carbon in aerosols. Her preliminary air trajectory results also suggest that fossil fuel burning might be the dominant source of BC aerosol collected in her study site in Northern MI. Her results were presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in 2010.