LOCATION AKIUK                   AK

Established Series
SAS/MPS
02/2022

AKIUK SERIES

Landscape--mountains
Landform--ridges
Slope--5 to 30 percent
Parent material--gravelly loess and colluvium over dark colored siltstone or shale residuum
Mean annual precipitation--about 550 mm
Mean annual air temperature--about -4 degrees C
Depth class--shallow to paralithic contact
Drainage class--well drained
Soil moisture regime--udic
Soil temperature regime--cryic
Soil moisture subclass--typic

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, shallow Typic Dystrocryepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Akiuk silt loam on a southeast facing convex, convex shoulder, on a slope of 23 percent at an elevation of 387 m (The soil was moist throughout the profile when described on June 1, 2018.)

Oe--0 to 3 cm; moderately decomposed plant material, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) dry, very dark brown (10YR 2/2) moist; nonsticky, nonplastic; many very fine and common fine, medium, and coarse roots; 10 percent channers; strongly acid (pH 5.2); clear smooth boundary

A--3 to 20 cm; very channery silt loam, brown (10YR 5/3) dry, dark brown (10YR 3/3) moist; weak medium granular structure; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; common very fine, fine, and medium roots; few fine and few very fine irregular pores; 45 percent channers; strongly acid (pH 5.4); clear smooth boundary

Bw--20 to 43 cm; extremely channery silt loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; weak medium granular structure; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; common very fine and medium roots; few fine irregular pores; 70 percent channers; strongly acid (pH 5.1); abrupt irregular boundary

2Cr--43 to 150 cm; paralithic bedrock

TYPE LOCATION: Nome Census Area, Alaska, latitude 63.7479402 longitude -160.4340239 degrees, datum WGS84 (Coordinates determined with a GPS unit)

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Mean annual soil temperature--0 to 3 degrees C
Soil moisture control section--dry less than 45 consecutive days in June through October
Thickness of ochric epipedon--5 to 17 cm
Thickness of cambic horizon--15 to 45 cm
Depth to paralithic contact--25 to 50 cm below the mineral soil surface

Particle Size Control Section:
*Clay--3 to 15 percent
*Total fragments--40 to 80 percent channers derived from dark colored siltstone or shale

Oe horizon
Thickness--2 to 8 cm

A horizon
Value--2 to 3 moist, 4 or 5 dry
Chroma--2 or 3
Clay--3 to 15 percent
Sand--15 to 35 percent
Organic carbon--5 to 10 percent
Total rock fragment content--10 to 60 percent channers
Reaction--4.2 to 5.4
Thickness--5 to 20cm

Bw horizon
Value--3 or 4 moist, 5 or 6 dry
Chroma--2 to 4
Clay--3 to 15 percent
Sand--15 to 35 percent
Organic carbon--2 to 5 percent
Total rock fragment content--40 to 80 percent channers
Reaction--4.4 to 5.4
Thickness--15 to 45 cm

2Cr horizon

COMPETING SERIES:
* Gilmore--very shallow or shallow to schist paralithic bedrock, silty micaceous loess over weathered schist bedrock, pH ranges above 5.4
* Brigadier--shallow to bedrock, silty micaceous loess parent material, textures range to sandy loam
* Angel--shallow to paralithic bedrock, parent material is loess over weathered granite residuum, textures range to loamy coarse sand

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
*Elevation--150 to 650 m
*Climate--warm, moist summers; cold, dry winters
*Mean annual precipitation--400 to 700 mm
*Mean annual air temperature-- -6 to -2 degrees C
*Frost-free period--45 to 80 days

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
* Paugna--moderately deep to paralithic contact, hillslopes and mountain slopes on hills and mountains
*MountMcDonald--shallow to lithic contact; mountain shoulders and summit

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
*Drainage class--well drained
*Saturation during normal years--none
*Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat)--very high in the surface organic layer, high to moderately high throughout the rest of the profile

USE AND VEGETATION:
Use--wildlife habitat, recreation, subsistence
Potential native vegetation--dwarf birch, black crowberry, eightpetal mountain-avens, alpine azalea, star reindeer lichen, reindeer lichen, greygreen reindeer lichen, bryocaulon lichen, witch's hair lichen, snow lichen, cup lichen, moss, Franklin's sandwort, Bigelow's sedge, common woodrush, blackish oxytrope, alpine bearberry, bog blueberry, marsh Labrador tea, skeletonleaf willow, resin birch

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Nulato Hills-Southern Seward Peninsula Highlands, Alaska; MLRA 240; small extent

SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: WASILLA, ALASKA

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Nulato Hills BLM area, Nome Census Area, Alaska; 2021

REMARKS:
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon
*Particle-size control section--zone from 28 to 43 cm
*Ochric epipedon--zone from 0 to 20 cm
*Cambic horizon--zone from 20 to 43 cm
*Paralithic contact--at 43 cm
*Lithological discontinuity--at 43 cm

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.