The general objective of PYROPLANKTON is to provide, thanks to an innovative experimental approach, the mechanistic and detailed understanding on how biomass burning aerosols perturb seawater’s chemical composition and its impacts on marine microorganisms.

The highlight of the project is the cutting-edge experiment conducted at LOV using the Climator facility (https://lov.imev-mer.fr/web/facilities/climator/) allowing for an unprecedented control and evaluation of the effect of biomass burning aerosols (BBa) on seawater’s chemical composition and its impacts on marine microorganisms. Thanks to a 2 weeks experiment, we’ll get a full picture of the interactions between the (micro)nutrients released by the BBa, including the organic forms, and the diversity of the natural assemblage. A series of processes including particulate/dissolved exchange, scavenging and aggregation will be parameterized. PYROPLANKTON-LEFE will tackle the following questions: (1) what are the dissolution and scavenging kinetics of metals from BBa in the surface ocean; (2) what is the fate of organic matter released by BBa upon deposition? (3) what are the interactions between both allochthonous and autochthonous organic matter and BBa (aggregation, ballast effect, export); (4) how do inputs from forest wildfires impact microbial diversity?