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We examined the chemical composition of aerosol samples collected during a prescribed fire at a Great Basin Desert site in the context of samples collected from controlled combustion of vegetation clippings from the same site and resuspension of soil samples obtained prior to and after the burn event. We observed a distinct difference in the composition of organic carbon resuspended soil dust after the burn, reflecting changes caused by the heating of the soil. The relative abundances of minerals and organic carbon fractions in aerosols collected during the first period of the burn were identical to those measured in soil dust. For aerosol samples collected for the remaining two periods of the burn event, the profiles of both minerals and organic carbon matched quite well those observed for vegetation combustion. Reconstruction of aerosol samples collected during the burn event showed that vegetation combustion …