LOCATION BROADBROOK CT MA RIEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Broadbrook silt loam - cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap-- 0 to 8 inches (0 to 20 centimeters); very dark brown (10YR 2/2) silt loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry; moderate medium granular structure; very friable; few fine roots; 5 percent gravel; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) thick.)
Bw1-- 8 to 14 inches (20 to 36 centimeters); dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; few fine roots; 5 percent gravel; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 14 to 25 inches (36 to 64 centimeters); dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; 5 percent gravel; moderately acid; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 14 to 37 inches (36 to 94 centimeters).)
2Cd-- 25 to 65 inches (64 to 165 centimeters); olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) gravelly fine sandy loam; weak medium platy structure; very firm, brittle; 15 percent gravel and cobble; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: New London County, Connecticut; town of Ledyard, 2,500 feet east northeast of the junction of Connecticut Route 117 and Thomas Road, and 1,000 feet north of Thomas Road; USGS Uncasville, CT topographic quadrangle, Latitude 41 degrees, 28 minutes, 24 seconds N., Longitude 72 degrees, 1 minute, 9 seconds W., NAD 27
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 18 through 40 inches (46 to 100 centimeters) and typically corresponds to the depth to the dense substratum. Depth to bedrock is commonly more than 2 meters. Rock fragments range from 0 through 20 percent by volume in the solum and from 5 through 35 percent in the substratum. Except where the surface layer is stony, the fragments are mostly subrounded gravel and typically make up 60 percent or more of the total rock fragments. Unless limed, reaction ranges from very strongly acid through moderately acid.
Some pedons have an O horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value and chroma of 2 through 4. Dry value is 6 or more. Undisturbed pedons have a thin A horizon with value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 through 3. The Ap or A horizon commonly is silt loam or very fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction, but includes loam high in silt. It has granular structure and is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have a thin E horizon below the A horizon. It has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 1 through 3. Texture, structure, and consistence are like the A horizon.
The upper part of the Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 through 6. The lower part of the Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 through 6. Some pedons have few faint redoximorphic features just above the 2Cd horizon. The Bw horizon is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, or loam with more than 65 percent silt plus very fine sand. It has granular or subangular blocky structure. Consistence is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have an E or E' horizon up to 3 inches thick below the B horizon. It has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 5 or 6, and chroma of 2 or 3. Typically, it is coarser textured than the overlying horizon.
The 2Cd horizon has hue of 2.5YR through 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 6. It is loam, fine sandy loam or sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. The horizon has medium through very thick plates, or it is massive. Consistence is firm or very firm. Some pedons have a thin friable 2C horizon above the 2Cd horizon.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Amostown, Bernardston, Horseneck, Nantucket, Paxton, Scituate, and Wethersfield series. Amostown soils are moderately well drained and formed in glacial outwash overlying glaciolacustrine sediments. Bernardston soils formed in till derived from dark gray phylite, slate, or shist. Horseneck soils are moderately well drained and formed in glacial fluvial deposits. Nantucket soils have higher clay content in the 2Cd horizon resulting in slightly sticky or sticky consistence. Paxton soils have a B horizon with less than 65 percent silt plus very fine sand. Scituate soils are moderately well drained and have a sandy Cd horizon within a meter. Wethersfield soils have 5YR or redder hue in the B horizon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Broadbrook soils are nearly level through steep and are on till plains, hills, and drumlins. Slope ranges from 0 through 35 percent. The soils formed in silty mantled acid lodgement till derived from gneiss, schist, sandstone, conglomerate, and basalt. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 52 degrees F. (7 to 11 degrees C.), mean annual precipitation ranges from 37 through 50 inches (940 to 1270 millimeters), and the growing season ranges from 120 through 185 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Paxton and Wethersfield soils and the Agawam, Birchwood, Bridgehampton, Canton, Charlton, Cheshire, Enfield, Hollis, Leicester, Ludlow, Menlo, Merrimac, Montauk, Narragansett, Newport, Rainbow, Ridgebury, Scituate, Stissing, Sutton, Wapping, Watchaug, Whitman, Wilbraham, and Woodbridge soils. The moderately well drained Rainbow soils are associated in a drainage sequence. Agawam, Enfield, and Merrimac soils are on nearby outwash terraces and are underlain by stratified sand or sand and gravel. Canton and Sutton soils do not have a dense substratum. Hollis soils have bedrock within a depth of 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters). Leicester, Ridgebury, Stissing, and Wilbraham soils are poorly drained. Mansfield, Menlo, and Whitman soils are very poorly drained.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is medium to rapid. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the mineral surface layer and subsoil, and low through moderately high in the dense substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas are cleared and used for cultivated crops, hay or pasture. Scattered areas are used for community development. Some areas are wooded. Common trees are northern red and white oak, hickory, sugar maple, ash, yellow poplar, eastern white pine, and eastern hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated uplands in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. MLRA's 144A and 145. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hartford County, Connecticut, 1959.
REMARKS: This revision reflects the addition of 149B, minor changes to the range in characteristics, as well as general updating to metric units.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1) Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 8 inches (0 to 20 centimeters) (Ap horizon).
2) Cambic horizon - the zone from 8 to 25 inches (20 to 64 centimeters) (Bw horizons).
3) Lithologic discontinuity - at a depth of 25 inches (64 centimeters).
4) Densic material - the zone from 25 to 65 inches (64 through 165 centimeters) (2Cd horizon).
5) Oxyaquic subgroup - based on saturation in one or more layers within 40 inches (100 centimeters) of the mineral soil surface, for either or both 20 or more consecutive days or 30 or more cumulative days.
6) Particle-size control section - the zone from 8 through 25 inches (20 through 64 centimeters) (Bw horizons).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Full characterization data for sample no. 77MA005001, 77MA005006A, 77MA005006B, 77MA005006C and 99CT003010. Pedons analyzed by the NSSL, Lincoln, NE.