Wind blown sediment mass budget of Sahelian village land units in Niger

To assess the mass budget of aeolian sediments transported by wind (erosion vs. deposition) at the scale of villa-e land units (25 km x 25 km), measurements were carried out during 3 years (from 1996 to 1998) in a cultivated field and in a fallow area simultaneously. These were located in the Sahelian zone of Niger with an average annual rainfall of 560 mm. The vertical upward fluxes of particles < 20 <mu>m exported from the study area were estimated from the horizontal sediment fluxes measured using BSNE sand catchers. This mass of exported dust was compared with the vertical downward fluxes of particles of the same size range (< 20 tm) measured using passive CAPYR collectors. Values of deposition recorded in the field and in the fallow were similar. In the field, wind erosion reached its maximum in May and June when the vegetation cover was minimal. In the fallow area, wind erosion was always very low in comparison with the field. It occurred during the strongest storms when the grass cover was minimal. Nevertheless, the net balance between deposition and erosion was highly positive in the fallow areas. These results have been extrapolated at the scale of the village land units based on the current land use. At this scale, the balance was positive for the arable land, indicating a net deposition of aeolian sediments of +0.36 t ha(-1) yr(-1). However, the complete disappearance of fallow land would result in a balanced budget for the arable land.