I returned to Rio Branco yesterday. Given that the fire was delayed during our last visit, we were only able to gather one day of post-burn data on soil mercury emissions. We realized it would be great to get additional post-burn data and do some time-course comparisons - i.e. how do post burn emissions change with time. So I will be gathering over the next few days to compare soil mercury emissions at this point - two-months after the burn - to those I measured the day after the fire.
I have paired up with a few other researchers who have returned to the site to measure the amount of biomass remaining on the plot. Tree biomass was measured pre-burn, and with the measurements they are taking this week of post-burn biomass, they can calculate the amount of biomass that was actually burned, and use this when calculating at carbon and other pollutant releases from the fire. The only catch is that today is Thanksgiving in the U.S., but obviously not in Brazil - so I will be measuring mercury rather than eating turkey :-)
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