LOCATION BEBEEVAR                NM+AZ CO

Established Series
Rev. JVC/WRJ/LWH
02/2016

BEBEEVAR SERIES

The Bebeevar series consists of very deep, moderately well drained soils that formed in alluvium derived from sandstone, granite, and quartzite. Bebeevar soils are on inter-channel bars of low, braided flood plains along perennial streams. Slopes are 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 7 inches (178 mm) and the mean annual air temperature is about 53 degrees F (12 degrees C).

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy, mixed, mesic Oxyaquic Torrifluvents

TYPICAL PEDON: Bebeevar loamy sand - on a nearly level bar of a river flood plain at 4,910 feet elevation - riparian wildlife habitat. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted. When described, the pedon was moist from the surface to a depth of 38 inches and wet from 38 to the ground water at 48 inches.)

AC--0 to 4 inches (0 to 10 cm); pale brown (10YR 6/3) loamy sand, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; weak medium platy and weak fine granular structure; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and nonplastic; few fine and very fine roots; few very fine vesicular pores; few thin lenses of fine sandy loam; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear wavy boundary. (2 to 6 inches or 5 to 15 cm thick)

C1--4 to 13 inches (10 to 33 cm); pale brown (10YR 6/3) loamy fine sand, brown (10YR 5/3) moist; few fine faint dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) redox concentrations; massive; soft, very friable, slightly sticky and nonplastic; few medium, common fine, and few very fine roots; few very fine discontinuous tubular pores; 5 percent gravel; few thin lenses of fine sandy loam; slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.2); abrupt wavy boundary.

C2--13 to 28 inches (33 to 71 cm); pale brown (10YR 6/3) gravelly coarse sand, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; few fine faint dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) redox concentrations; single grain; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; few fine and very fine roots; one thin stratum of fine sandy loam with common fine distinct dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) redox concentrations; 25 percent gravel; very slightly effervescent; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear wavy boundary.

C3--28 to 36 inches (71 to 91 cm); pale brown (10YR 6/3) very gravelly coarse sand, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; few fine faint dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) redox concentrations; single grain; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; few medium and very fine roots; 40 percent gravel and 10 percent cobbles; very slightly effervescent; slightly alkaline (pH 7.8); abrupt wavy boundary.

C4--36 to 70 inches (91 to 178 cm); light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) sand, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) moist; few fine faint dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) redox concentrations; single grain; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; few fine roots; few strata of gravelly coarse sand; 5 percent gravel; very slightly effervescent; slightly alkaline (pH 7.8). (Combined thickness of the C horizons is more than 60 inches or 152 cm.)

TYPE LOCATION: San Juan County, New Mexico; on the Navajo Indian Reservation about 3 miles east of Shiprock and north of the San Juan River; 2,300 feet south and 800 feet west of the northeast corner of sec. 33, T.30N., R.17W.; Latitude 36 degrees 46 minutes 18 seconds N and Longitude 108 degrees 37 minutes 50 seconds W.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Soil moisture - Typically, the soil moisture control section (SMCS) is intermittently moist in some parts between November to April and July to September. Driest during May and June. Typic aridic soil moisture regime.
Soil temperature - 47 to 59 degrees F.

Depth to seasonal high water table - 3.5 to 5.0 feet; present during peak runoff periods caused by high mountain snowmelt and intense convective storms between May and October
Silicate clay content, control section weighted average - 2 to 10 percent
Rock fragment content, control section weighted average - 0 to 35 percent
Electrical conductivity: 0 to 4 dS/m
Sodium adsorption ratio: 0 to 5
Reaction - slightly alkaline to moderately alkaline
Calcium carbonate equivalent - 0 to 5 percent by weight; noneffervescent to strongly effervescent depending on texture, due to very finely disseminated calcium carbonates

AC horizon
Hue: 2.5Y, 10YR,7.5YR
Value: 4 to 7 dry, 3 to 6 moist
Chroma: 2 to 4, dry or moist
Rock fragments: Total range is 0 to 15 percent; 0 to 5 percent gravel; 0 to 10 percent cobbles
Other features: some pedons have cobbly surfaces or thin lenses of fine sandy loam or very fine sandy loam

C horizons
Hue: 2.5Y, 10YR, 7.5YR
Value: 4 to 7 dry, 3 to 6 moist
Chroma: 2 to 6, dry or moist
Texture: stratified very gravelly coarse sand to very fine sandy loam. Most horizons are dominantly loamy fine sand, sand, coarse sand, gravelly sand, gravelly coarse sand and very gravelly coarse sand, with thin strata and lenses of fine sandy loam or very fine sandy loam. Rock fragments: Total range is 0 to 55 percent, 0 to 45 percent gravel, 0 to 10 percent cobbles
Redoximorphic features: few to common, fine to medium, and faint to distinct, yellowish brown, dark yellowish brown or strong brown redox concentrations; Color expression is greater in the thin loamy strata; Redox depletions are present in horizons below 40 inches in some pedons
Other features: Some pedons have lamina or lenses of silt loam or silty clay loam

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Carwalker (NV), Escawetter (I) (NM), Labyrinth (UT) Lesbois (ID), and Sagouspe (NV) series. The Escawetter series overlap existing series and are inactive. Lesbois soil have a seasonal water table as high as 50 cm and experience different climate patterns in MLRA 11 and Land Resource Area B. Labyrinth soils occur in MLRA 34 and have an ustic aridic soil moisture regime. Carwalker and Sagouspe soils have a soil moisture regime bordering on xeric.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Bebeevar soils are on inter-channel bars of low, braided flood plains along perennial streams. They formed in alluvium derived from sandstone, granite, and quartzite. Eolian re-working is occurring in some areas. Slopes are 0 to 3 percent. Elevation ranges from 4,600 to 5,610 feet (1402 to 1710 meters). The mean annual precipitation is 5 to 10 inches (127 to 254 mm). The mean annual air temperature is 50 to 57 degrees F (10 to 14 degrees C). The average frost-free period is 120 to 180 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Escavada, Green River, and Walrees soils. Walrees soils have a contrasting particle-size class and are in lower, more frequently flooded channel areas. Escavada soils are drier and occur on higher flood plains. Green River soils are coarse-loamy and occur on slightly higher bars.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained; very slow runoff; moderately rapid permeability. These soils are subject to occasional, very brief periods of flooding between June and September.

USE AND VEGETATION: Bebeevar soils are used for wildlife habitat and limited livestock grazing and irrigated agriculture. Present vegetation is Fremont cottonwood, saltcedar, New Mexico olive, Russian-olive, threadleaf rubber rabbitbrush, and inland saltgrass.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Bebeevar soils are of small extent in northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, and southwest Colorado. LRR - D, MLRA 35.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Phoenix, Arizona

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Shiprock Area, Parts of San Juan County, New Mexico and Apache County, Arizona; 1993.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Entisol feature - the lack of diagnostic surface and subsurface horizons due to continual deposition of fresh sediments and very young soil age
Fluventic feature - alluvial stratification, an irregular decrease in the percentage of organic carbon with depth, and strata of loamy very fine sand and finer in sub-horizons between 10 and 40 inches (25 to 100 cm) (C1, C2, C3, and C4 horizons)
Oxyaquic subgroup - saturation due to the presence of a seasonal high water table between 42 and 60 inches (107 to 152 cm) for more than 1 month in most years

Classified according to Soil Taxonomy, Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy 11th Edition, 2010.

Updates and revisions for the correlation of Ft. Defiance Area, AZ715, February 2008, DWD

Updated competing series section, February 2009, CEM

Update and revisions for the correlation of Chinle Area (AZ713), August 2011, LJG2

Updated competing series section for the correlation of the SDJR - MLRA 35 - Bebeevar-Walrees complex, 0 to 2 percent slopes MLRA 35 project, September 2013, LJG2

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.