LOCATION BRIDGEHEAD              AL

Tentative Series
IRD SP-RJK-EED
10/2023

BRIDGEHEAD SERIES

MLRA(s): 152A
Depth class: Very deep
Drainage Class: Very poorly drained
Parent Material: Fine textured estuarine sediments
Geomorphic location--Talf of low coastal plain estuary
Slope range for Series--0 to 1 percent
Mean annual air temperature--20 degrees C (68 degrees F)
Mean annual precipitation--1676 millimeters (66 inches)

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, superactive, nonacid, thermic Typic Sulfaquents

TYPICAL PEDON: Bridgehead mucky silt loam on an emergent estuarine tidal marsh. Tidal range is 25 centimeters. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated).

Aseg--0 to 32 centimeters; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) crushed mucky silt loam; massive; 8 percent unrubbed fibers, 1 percent rubbed fibers; very fluid; very few coarse, few medium, and many very fine and fine roots throughout; slightly effervescent reaction to 30% hydrogen peroxide; neutral (pH 6.6); clear boundary. (Thickness of Aseg horizon is 6 to 40 centimeters)

Cseg1--32 to 70 centimeters; dark gray (2.5Y 4/1) broken face mucky silty clay loam; massive; 10 percent unrubbed, 2 percent rubbed fibers; moderately fluid; common fine roots throughout and common medium roots throughout; moderate effervescent reaction to 30% hydrogen peroxide; slightly acid (pH 6.5); clear boundary.

Cseg2--70 to 124 centimeters; dark gray (5Y 4/1) broken face silty clay; massive; moderately fluid; few very fine roots throughout; moderate effervescent reaction to 30% hydrogen peroxide; slightly acid (pH 6.3); gradual boundary.

Cseg3--124 to 144 centimeters; very dark gray (2.5Y 3/1) broken face clay loam; massive; moderately fluid; moderate effervescent reaction to 30% hydrogen peroxide; slightly acid (pH 6.5); gradual boundary.

Cseg4--144 to 200 centimeters; very dark gray (5Y 3/1) broken face silty clay loam; massive; slightly fluid; moderate effervescent reaction to 30% hydrogen peroxide; slightly acid (pH 6.5).

TYPE LOCATION: Baldwin County, Alabama; on a 212 degree bearing 1,875 meters southwest of the southeast corner of section 34, T 3 S, R 1 E, south of the irregular Spanish Land Grant portion of the Mobile/Tensaw Delta; USGS topographic quadrangle: Bridgehead, AL.

Latitude--30.7190222
Longitude-- -87.9639472
Datum--WGS84
Coordinate source--manually entered from GPS

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Depth to bedrock--greater than 200 centimeters
Soil Moisture--Peraquic moisture regime; continuously saturated to the surface
Water depth--At or above the soil surface up to a depth of 30 centimeters
Field measured reaction throughout--slightly acid to slightly alkaline (pH 6.2 to 7.8)
Oxidized reaction--ultra acid to extremely acid (pH 1.8 to 4.4) throughout mineral and mucky mineral material
Electrical conductivity (saturated paste) throughout--8 to 16 ds/m
Depth to sulfidic materials (oxidized pH < 4.0)--0 to 50 centimeters
Particle-size control section (weighted average)--35 to 60 percent clay
Shell fragments throughout--0 to 5 percent; size-2 to 5 mm

Oa or Oe horizon (where present):
Hue--7.5YR, 10YR, 2.5Y, or 5Y
Value--2 to 4
Chroma--1 to 3
Texture (in lieu)--muck or mucky peat
Thickness--0 to 18 centimeters
Rubbed fiber-0 to 40 %
Von Post-H5 to H10

Aseg horizon:
Hue--N, 5Y, 2.5Y, or 10YR
Value--2, 2.5, 3
Chroma--up to 3
Texture--loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam or their mucky analogs
Manner of failure--moderately to very fluid
Organic Carbon content--3 to <12 percent

Cseg horizons
Hue--N, 10Y, 5Y, or 2.5Y
Value--2 to 5
Chroma--1 or 2
Texture--clay loam, silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay or their mucky analogs
Manner of failure--moderately to very fluid
Organic Carbon content--3 to <12 percent

2Cseg horizon (where present):
Hue--N, 10Y, 5Y, or 2.5Y
Value--2 to 5
Chroma--1 or 2
Texture--loamy fine sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or sandy clay loam, or their mucky analogs
Manner of failure--nonfluid to slightly fluid
Organic Carbon content--0.5 to 8 percent

COMPETING SERIES: None

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
Parent material--Fine estuarine deposits often with organic or mucky mineral layers near the soil surface and throughout
Landscape--Coastal estuaries
Landform--Tidal marsh
Elevation--0 to 1 meter above mean sea level
Mean Annual Air Temperature--18 to 21 degrees C (65 to 70 degrees F)
Mean Annual Precipitation--1625 to 1750 millimeters (64 to 69 inches)
Frost-free period--315 to 365 days

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
These are the Bateau, Lafitte, and Levy series, all of which occur in adjacent tidal marshes.

Bateau soils--Have less than 35 percent clay in the particle-size control section
Lafitte soils--Formed in thick organic materials
Levy soils--No sulfidic materials within 50 cm of the mineral soil surface

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
Drainage class--Very poorly drained
Saturated hydraulic conductivity--moderately low
Soil moisture regime--Peraquic
Flooding-- Very frequently flooded by daily tides for very brief periods

USE AND VEGETATION:
Major uses--This area is suitable for recreation and wildlife habitat.
Native vegetation--This soil supports forbs and small shrubs tolerant of fresh to moderately saline water. Examples of vegetation include cattail, bulltongue arrowhead, broadleaf arrowhead, swamp sawgrass, alligatorweed, spotted water hemlock, wax myrtle, swamp bay, and dwarf palmetto.
Ecological site--F152AY220FL - Central Coastal Adjacent Tidal Zones

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
General area--These soils are located in embayed parts of the East Gulf Coastal Plain of Alabama.
Land Resource Region--P - South Atlantic and Gulf Slope Cash Crops, Forest, and Livestock Region
MLRA--152A
Extent--Small

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Auburn, Alabama.

SERIES PROPOSED: Baldwin County, Alabama; 2023.

REMARKS: The Bridgehead series is mapped in areas formerly delineated as a Tidal Marsh miscellaneous area in Alabama soil surveys.

Diagnostic horizons and features in this pedon include:
Peraquic feature--Very frequently flooded; surface is continuously saturated
Particle-size control section--The zone from 25 to 100 centimeters (0 to 40 inches)
Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 32 centimeters (0 to 12 inches) (Aseg horizon).
Sulfidic Materials--0 to 200 centimeters; moderate or strongly effervescent reaction to 30 percent hydrogen peroxide; rapid color change to 3 percent hydrogen peroxide test positive for reduced FeS; hydrogen sulfide odor Aseg and Cseg horizons)
N value > 0.7--The zone from 0 to 200 centimeters (Aseg and Cseg horizons)
Taxonomic version--Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 12th edition (2014)

Fluventic feature--Soil organic carbon content of greater than 0.2 percent at a depth of 125 cm; Keys to Soil Taxonomy 13th edition (2022) series subgroup classification is Fluventic Sulfaquents

ADDITIONAL DATA: Type location taken from NASIS user pedon 2021AL003049. Supporting characterization data analyzed by the Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory, Lincoln, NE include NASIS user pedons S2020AL003021. Additional support pedons include 2020AL003017, 2020AL003018, 2021AL003035, and 2021AL003048.

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.