13:03 There are 10x as many bacteria and fungi in forest fire smoke than in ambient air. [This is likely due to the powerful updrafts during forest fires carrying detritus upwards rather than any ability of the smoke to harbor spores.]
They were formerly inside plant structures that were destroyed by the fire. Essentially the spores are trying to "get away" from the fire. A new kind of vector for microorganism dispersal.
This phenomenon was forst explored in a father-daughter high-school science project, including flying a kite to collect samples aloft to prove the spores weren't local ground-based contaminants.
"Fungal spores are transported long distances in smoke from biomass fires." 2004
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1352231003009142
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