LOCATION CIENEBA                 CA

Established Series
Rev. GWH/RCH/RWK/SBS/KP/RLR
08/2012

CIENEBA SERIES

The Cieneba series consists of very shallow and shallow, somewhat excessively drained soils that formed in material weathered from granitic rock. Cieneba soils are on hills and mountains and have slopes of 9 to 85 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 635 mm (25 inches) and the mean annual air temperature is about 16 degrees C (60 degrees F).

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, mixed, superactive, nonacid, thermic, shallow Typic Xerorthents

TYPICAL PEDON: Cieneba gravelly loam, chaparral cover. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)

O1--0 to 1 cm (0 to 1/2 inch); intermittent, partially decomposed leaf and twig litter; grayish brown; loose and fluffy; abrupt smooth boundary.

A--1 to 25 cm (1/2 to 10 inches); pale brown (10YR 6/3) fine gravelly loam, brown (10YR 4/3) moist; moderate fine granular structure; slightly hard, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; many fine and medium roots; many very fine and fine interstitial pores; moderately acid; gradual smooth boundary. (4 to 20 inches thick)

Cr--25 to 76 cm (10 to 30 inches); reddish yellow and brown, strongly weathered, acid granitic material with relic rock structure; some loam material formed in place in cracks and cleavage planes; larger roots penetrate along joints.

TYPE LOCATION: San Benito County, California; on the south side of Fremont Peak Road, 9 miles south of San Joan Bautista; SE side of section 25, T.13 S., R.4 E; 36 degrees North latitude, 46 minutes, 41.1 seconds and 121 degrees, 28 minutes, 17.0 seconds West longitude, NAD83.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Soil moisture: Soil below a depth of about 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) usually is moist all of the time after November until sometime in May and is dry the remainder of the year.
Mean Annual Soil Temperature: 15 to 18 degrees C (59 to 65 degrees F).

Rock fragments: 0 to 35 percent by volume
Depth to paralithic contact: 10 to 50 cm (4 to 20 inches)
Reaction: neutral to strongly acid, dominantly slightly or medium acid
Clay content: less than 18 percent throughout the profile
Textures: coarse sandy loam, sandy loam, loam or has a gravelly modifier
Sand fraction: 15 to 25 percent coarse and very coarse sand
Organic matter: less than 1 percent below a depth of 2 to 10 cm (1 to 4 inches)

A horizon:
Color: hue of 10YR, value of 4 to 6, chroma of 2 or 3
or hue of 7.5YR, value of 5 or 3, chroma of 2 to 4
Color notes: Dry values of 4 or 5 extend to a depth of 2 to 12 cm (1 to 5 inches) in protected pedons that have not been burned or eroded.
Texture: coarse sandy loam, sandy loam, loam, or has a gravelly modifier
Clay content: less than 18 percent clay

Cr horizon: extremely weakly to moderately cemented bedrock

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Chumash and Trigo series. Chumash soils are weathered from sedimentary rocks. Trigo soils are weathered from consolidated sediments dominantly from silty or fine sandy alluvium.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Cieneba soils formed from material weathered from granite and other rocks of similar texture and composition. Gradients are 9 to 85 percent. The soils are at elevations of 150 to 1220 meters (500 to 4,000 feet). The climate is dry subhumid mesothermal with warm dry summers and cool moist winters. There is little or no snow. Mean annual precipitation is 305 to 890 mm (12 to 35 inches). Mean annual temperature is 14 to 18 degrees C (57 degrees to 65 degrees F).; average January temperature is 7 to 10 degrees C (45 degrees to 50 degrees F).; average July temperature is 20 to 27 degrees C (68 degrees to 80 degrees F). The frost-free season is 175 to 300 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Ahwahnee, Auberry, Chualar, Gillender, La Posta, Maymen, Pentz, Sheridan, Tollhouse and Vista soils. Ahwahnee and Auberry soils are more than 50 cm (20 inches) deep to a paralithic contact and have argillic horizons. Chualar, La Posta, Sheridan and Tollhouse soils have mollic epipedon. Gillender soils have less than 15 percent very coarse plus coarse sand and are weathered from rhyolite. Maymen soils have a cambic horizon and are weathered from sedimentary rocks. Pentz soils have an exchange complex dominated by amorphous material and more than 60 percent vitreous material in the sand and silt fraction. Vista soils are greater than 50 cm (20 inches) deep to a paralithic contact.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained; low to high runoff; moderately rapid permeability in the soil and much slower in the weathered bedrock.

USE AND VEGETATION: Used for wildlife, recreation, watershed, and incidental grazing. Vegetation is mainly chaparral and chemise with widely spread foothill pine or oak tree. There are small area of thin annual grasses and weeds.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Coastal mountain ranges in central and southern California and foothills of the Sierra Nevada, MLRAs 15, 18 and 20 The soil is extensive.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Monterey County, California, 1972.

REMARKS:

Geomorphic data updated; Competing and Geographically Associated soils were updated and made current. Range in characteristics was converted to a tabular form; english to metric unit conversion (05/2012)

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.