Dry and Wet Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition in West Central Africa

This work is part of the IDAF (IGAC/DEBITS/AFrica) programme which started in 1995 with the establishment of 10 measurement sites representative of major African ecosystems. The objectives of the programme are to study wet and dry deposition fluxes, to identify the relative contribution of natural and anthropogenic sources and factors regulating these fluxes. This study presents an estimation of the atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition budget in Africa based on a long term monitoring measurements database including gaseous, precipitation and aerosols chemical composition. Annual nitrogen fluxes including wet and dry processes are estimated to be around 6 kg N ha−1 year−1, 6.5 kg N ha−1 year−1 and 13 kg N ha−1 year−1 respectively over dry savanna, humid savanna and over the forest