image: Wild fire in the Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland National Park on 28 July 2022. Emergency services try to fight the fires in the difficult-to-access core zone of the national park using a screwdriver.
Credit: André Künzelmann, UFZ
Leipzig. Over the next four years, a new joint project will investigate the links between wild fires and climate change. The Leibniz ScienceCampus "Smoke and Bioaerosols in Climate Change" brings together expertise in atmospheric and biodiversity research from Leipzig University, on aerosols, clouds and atmospheric processes from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), on biomass combustion from the German Biomass Research Centre (DBFZ) and on water and energy cycles from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). Leibniz ScienceCampi serve the strategic networking of Leibniz institutes with universities and other co-operation partners in the region under a thematic focus.
The Leibniz Association funds these collaborations for a maximum of eight years. The new Leibniz Science Campus led by TROPOS is the second of its kind in Leipzig: since 2016, the "Eastern Europe - Global Area (EEGA)" Science Campus, led by the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL), is investigating globalisation processes in Eastern Europe.
Interactions between the atmosphere and the biosphere are poorly understood, particularly in the context of rapid climate change. Droughts caused by more frequent climate extremes increase the risk of wild fires. Such fires and the resulting smoke particles and gases have an impact on air quality, the Earth's radiation balance and vegetation patterns in affected regions.
Wild fires and the resulting changes in vegetation also influence the emission of primary biological aerosol particles, which, due to their properties, can affect the formation of cloud droplets, cloud ice and precipitation. Understanding the relationships between the type of vegetation, the emission of smoke and the primary biological aerosol particles as well as the atmospheric distribution of these particles and gases is also one of the prerequisites for understanding future changes in the atmosphere.
The combined expertise from various scientific disciplines is required to be able to research the processes in the interconnected atmosphere-climate-vegetation system. The Leibniz ScienceCampus "Smoke and Bioaerosols in Climate Change" (LSC BioSmoke) therefore brings together the outstanding expertise on atmospheric and biodiversity research at Leipzig University, on aerosols, clouds and atmospheric processes at TROPOS, on biomass combustion analysis at the DBFZ and on water and energy cycles at the UFZ in order to clarify the controlling factors and the effects of the release of aerosol particles from vegetation. To this end, the projects within the LSC include combustion experiments in the laboratory, field measurements of aerosol properties in connection with vegetation fires and remote sensing and modelling of particle emission, transport and atmospheric effects. The network can also draw on extensive data from measurement campaigns conducted by the German research aircraft HALO, which investigated the smoke plumes from wild fires in South America, Asia, Australia and Europe - most recently during the HALO CAFE-Pacific mission in January/February 2024. The researchers from Leipzig are also planning new measurement campaigns. For example, a field experiment in Spain for summer 2025 will take place in close cooperation with researchers from the University of Castilla - La Mancha, who carry out and analyse controlled fires on specific fields in Castile twice a year.
"Vegetation fires have long been studied in the field of fire ecology. Atmospheric research has also been studying the effects of aerosols, such as smoke particles, on climate and weather for many years. Until now, both disciplines have largely worked separately from each other. By pooling expertise in the atmospheric and vegetation sciences, which is currently located in various research institutions in Leipzig, the planned Leibniz ScienceCampus aims to create a highly visible regional research network. The interdisciplinary investigation of fire-related emissions, atmospheric transport and climate processes will contribute to a better understanding of the effects and interactions of aerosol particles from vegetation," explains Professor Dr Ina Tegen from TROPOS and Leipzig University, who is the spokesperson for the new ScienceCampus.
The researchers want to record the effects in three sub-projects: Firstly, the properties of smoke particles during the combustion of different plant species under controlled laboratory conditions and ageing processes under field conditions will be investigated. Secondly, atmospheric transport and changes in the particles will be investigated using process and transport modelling. Finally, the effects on radiation, clouds and vegetation will be derived from satellite observations and remote sensing from the ground.
The consortium can rely on an extensive infrastructure: from atmospheric chambers such as the ACD-Chamber and laboratories for the combustion of various types of biomass to several experimental platforms and observatories such as the Melpitz research station near Torgau or the PollyNet lidar network to the HALO research aircraft or global vegetation databases such as TRY and sPlot.
"I am delighted that, after 'Eastern Europe - Global Area', Leipzig will now be home to a second Leibniz Science Campus. Institutions such as TROPOS, our Institute of Meteorology and iDiv are among the international leaders in research into the cloud-aerosol-radiation and biodiversity complex. Their collaboration will be further intensified. In addition to the new Leibniz ScienceCampus, interdisciplinary research on the link between biodiversity and climate change has been established in Leipzig for some time. The collaborative projects also include a planned Cluster of Excellence as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments," emphasises Professor Dr Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University.
Leibniz ScienceCampi enable Leibniz institutes and universities to collaborate on a topic in the sense of a regional partnership. The aim is to create networks in order to further develop the respective research area and strengthen the scientific environment. Leibniz ScienceCampi conduct strategic research, promote interdisciplinarity, make the respective location visible and strengthen its research profile. The funded projects should not only be characterised by their particular scientific quality, but also by their social relevance. The budget of around 900,000 euros per year is usually shared equally between the Leibniz Association, the university and the Leibniz Institute submitting the application. If the assessment is positive after the first funding phase of four years, Leibniz ScienceCampi can be extended and funded for a further four years.