LOCATION BISSETT                 TX+AZ NM

Established Series
Rev. JLR/ACT
11/2014

BISSETT SERIES

The Bissett series consists of very shallow and shallow, well drained soils. They formed in colluvium and residuum weathered from limestone. These soils are on undulating to very steep hills and mountains. Slopes range from 1 to 70 percent.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, carbonatic, thermic Lithic Ustic Haplocalcids

TYPICAL PEDON: Bissett very gravelly loam - rangeland (colors are for dry soil unless otherwise stated).

A--0 to 2 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) very gravelly loam; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist; weak medium granular structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots, few medium roots; common prominent discontinuous calcium carbonate coatings on rock fragments; 35 percent limestone gravel; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline; clear wavy boundary (1 to 5 inches thick).

Bk--2 to 9 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) very gravelly loam; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist; weak medium granular structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots; many prominent continuous calcium carbonate coatings on rock fragments; 45 percent limestone gravel; strongly effervescent; moderately alkaline; abrupt wavy boundary (6 to 14 inches thick).

R--9 to 60 inches; hard, tightly fractured limestone bedrock.

TYPE LOCATION: Brewster County, Texas; From the junction of U.S. Highway 67 and U.S. Highway 90 approximately 8 miles east of Alpine; 4.6 miles northeast on U.S. Highway 67; 1.9 miles east on ranch road; 680 feet north of road in rangeland (Latitude: 30 degrees, 26 minutes, 25 seconds North; Longitude: 103 degrees, 27 minutes, 36 seconds west).

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil moisture: The soil is moist in some part of the epipedon for less than 90 cumulative days in most years. Ustic aridic moisture regime.

Soil temperature: 61 to 69 degrees F.

Depth bedrock: 6 to 20 inches

Calcium carbonate equivalent: 40 to 80 percent by volume

A and Bk horizons
Hue: 7.5YR, 10YR
Value: 3 to 7, dry or moist
Chroma: 2 or 4, dry or moist
Texture: loam, clay loam, sandy clay loam, silt loam, sandy loam
Clay content: 15 to 35 percent
Rock fragments: 20 to 70 percent, but average greater than 35 percent
Other features: coarse fragments have few to many coatings of calcium carbonate and pendants on lower surfaces

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Pagesprings (AZ) and Lozier (TX) series. Pagesprings series is inactive. Lozier soils are moist in the soil moisture control section during May and June and occur in the Great Plains.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Bissett soils are on undulating to very steep hills and mountains. Slopes range from 1 to 70 percent. These soils formed in colluvium and residuum weathered from limestone of Cretaceous age. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 8 to 16 inches, and mean annual air temperature ranges from 60 to 67 degrees F. Frost-free period ranges from 170 to 280 days, and elevation ranges from 2,695 to 5,815 feet.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Cienega and Crossen series. Crossen soils are shallow to a petrocalcic horizon. Cienega soils are very deep. These soils are on fans and footslope positions above Bissett soils.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderate to moderately slow. Runoff is high on 3 to 5 percent slopes, and very high on slopes greater than 5 percent.

USE AND VEGETATION: Used for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. The native plant community consists of sideoats grama, tanglehead, cane bluestem, green sprangletop, black grama, and plains bristlegrass.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: West Texas, Southern Arizona, and Southern New Mexico. MLRAs 42 and 38. The series is of moderate extent.

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

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Brewster County, Texas 1996. The name is from a mountain in Brewster County.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

Ochric epipedon: the zone from 0 to 9 inches (A and Bk horizons)

Calcic horizon: the zone from 2 to 9 inches (Bk horizon)

Lithic contact: the boundary at 9 inches (R horizon)

Classified according to Soil Taxonomy Second Edition, 1999; Keys to Soil Taxonomy, Twelfth Edition, 2014.

These soils were formerly included in the Altuda series. The epipedon meets all requirements for a mollic epipedon except the soil is not moist for 3 months or more (cumulative) during the growing season.

Update and revisions for the Recorrelation of Brewster County, Texas, Main Part, 2/7/08, CEM.

Revised for the correlation of Big Bend National Park, TX, Oct. 2010, CEM

Revised for the correlation of Hudspeth County, Texas (Main Part) and Culberson County, Texas (Main Part); July, 2012, NMS

Revised for the correlation of Black Hills-Sedona, AZ, August 2012, CEM

Revised for the correlation of Presidio County, Texas ; Oct, 2012, WWJ

Revised for the correlation of White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; October, 2014, NMS

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.