  This note is intended to highlight the important role of black carbon
produced from biomass burning in the global carbon cycle, and encourage further
research in this area. Consideration of the fundamental physical chemistry of
cellulose thermal decomposition suggests that suppression of biomass burning or
biasing burning practices to produce soot-free flames must inevitably transfer
more carbon to the atmosphere. A simple order-of-magnitude quantitative
analysis indicates that black carbon may be a significant carbon reservoir that
persists over geological time scales.
