LOCATION POOTATUCK CT+MA NH NY RI VT
Established Series
Rev. MFF-SMF-GS
01/2013
POOTATUCK SERIES
The Pootatuck series consists of very deep, moderately well drained loamy soils formed in alluvial sediments. They are nearly level soils on floodplains subject to frequent to occasional flooding. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the loamy upper layers and high or very high in the sandy substratum. Mean annual temperature is about 10 degrees Celsius, and mean annual precipitation is about 1190 millimeters.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Fluvaquentic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Pootatuck fine sandy loam - cutover woodland. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A-- 0 to 10 centimeters; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) fine sandy loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (7 to 23 centimeters thick)
Bw1-- 10 to 41 centimeters; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 41 to 53 centimeters; brown (10YR 4/3) fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; moderately acid; few medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron concentration and few medium faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) iron depletions; gradual wavy boundary.
Bw3-- 53 to 74 centimeters; dark brown (10YR 3/3) sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common medium faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) iron depletions and common medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; common fine roots; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 36 to 94 centimeters.)
C1-- 74 to 89 centimeters; brown (10YR 4/3) sand; single grain; loose; few fine roots; common medium faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) iron depletions and common medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron concentration; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
C2-- 89 to 100 centimeters; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) sand; single grain; loose; 5 percent gravel; few fine faint pale brown (10YR 6/3) masses of iron concentrations; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
C3-- 100 to 165 centimeters; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) gravelly sand; single grain; loose; 25 percent gravel; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Fairfield County, Connecticut; town of Easton, 800 feet northwest along Connecticut Route 58 from the intersection with Silver Hill Road, 200 feet east Route 58, and 80 feet west of the Aspetuck River; USGS Botsford topographic quadrangle, latitude 41 degrees 16 minutes 40 seconds N., longitude 73 degrees 19 minutes 32 seconds W, NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to the coarse-textured substratum range from 50 to 100 centimeters. Gravel ranges from 0 to 15 percent by volume in the solum and from 0 to 40 percent in the substratum. Some pedons have up to 15 percent cobbles in the substratum. Unless limed, reaction ranges very strongly acid to slightly acid.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 1 to 4. Texture is loam, very fine sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam. It has weak or moderate granular structure and is friable or very friable.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR to 5Y and value and chroma of 3 to 6. Iron depletions occur above a depth of 60 centimeters. The Bw horizon is dominantly fine sandy loam or sandy loam, but includes thin strata of loam, very fine sandy loam, or silt loam. It has granular or subangular blocky structure, or the horizon is massive. Consistence is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have thin Ab horizon strata.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 6. It is typically has redoximorphic features in some subhorizon. Texture of individual layers ranges from loamy fine sand to coarse sand in the fine-earth fraction. Included in some pedons are thin loamy and/or extremely gravelly strata. Also, some pedons have a loamy C horizon layer just below the Bw horizon. The C horizon is single grain and loose in the sandy part. The loamy part is typically massive and friable or very friable. The thickness and number of subhorizons is variable and corresponds to the thickness and variability of the alluvial deposits.
COMPETING SERIES: The
Basher,
Iotla,
Issue, and
Philo series are currently in the same family. Iotla and Issue series are from outside LRRs L, R and S. Basher soils have hue of 7.5YR or redder in the B horizon. Philo soils formed in alluvium derived from sandstone and shale. Iotla soils have redoximorphic features in the upper part of the B horizon. Issue soils are somewhat poorly drained. Iotla and Issue soils also have mean summer temperatures more than 3 degrees Celsius warmer than Pootatuck soils.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pootatuck soils are nearly level soils on floodplains and along rivers and streams. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. The soils formed in recent alluvium derived mostly from granite, gneiss, and schist. Mean annual temperature ranges from 7 to 13 degrees Celsius, mean annual precipitation ranges from 890 to 1270 millimeters, but the range includes as low as 660 millimeters in some places east of Adirondack Mountains in the Champlain Valley of New York. The growing season ranges from 115 to 190 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the
Ellington,
Ninigret,
Occum,
Rippowam,
Tisbury, and
Winooski soils and the
Agawam,
Enfield,
Hadley,
Haven,
Hinckley,
Lim,
Limerick,
Merrimac,
Saco,
Suncook, and
Windsor soils on nearby landscapes. The well drained Occum and the poorly drained Rippowam soils are associated in a drainage sequence. Agawam, Enfield, Haven, Hinckley, Merrimac, and Windsor soils are better drained and are on nearby outwash terraces. Hadley, Lim, Limerick, and Saco soils are silty floodplain associates. Suncook soils are sandy, excessively drained soils on floodplains.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. Surface runoff is slow. Saturated hydraulic conductivity moderately is moderately high or high in the loamy upper layers and high or very high in the sandy substratum. Most areas of these soils flood for short periods each year. Soils on higher positions flood occasionally.
USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are used for cultivated crops, hay, or pasture. Common trees in wooded areas are white pine, white, yellow, and gray birch, red maple, elm, alder, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Floodplains in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, eastern New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont; MLRAs 142, 144A and 145. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1979.
REMARKS: Cation exchange activity class placement determined from a review of limited lab data and similar or associated soils.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 10 centimeters (A horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 10 to 74 centimeters (Bw horizons).
3. Fluvaquentic subgroup - irregular decrease in organic carbon with depth and organic carbon is greater than 0.2 percent within 1.25 meters; aquic conditions and low chroma redoximorphic depletions with chroma 2 or less are within a depth of 60 centimeters from the surface.
4. Particle-size class - averages coarse-loamy in the control section from 25 to 100 centimeters.
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.