LOCATION CLINGMAN NCEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Dysic, frigid Lithic Udifolists
TYPICAL PEDON: Clingman peat on a 25 percent northeast-facing side slope at 4,400 feet elevation--forested. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Oi--0 to 6 inches; black (N 2/0) broken face peat, very dark brown (7.5YR 2/2) crushed and rubbed (fibric material); about 80 percent fiber, 50 percent rubbed; massive; loose; many very fine to medium roots; 5 percent twigs; extremely acid; clear smooth boundary. (1 to 8 inches thick)
Oe--6 to 14 inches; very dark brown (10YR 2/2) broken face mucky peat, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) crushed and rubbed (hemic material); about 60 percent fiber, 20 percent rubbed; massive; friable; many very fine to medium roots; extremely acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
A--14 to 18 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) loamy sand; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common fine roots; 5 percent by volume pebbles; extremely acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 4 inches thick)
R--18 to 24 inches; unweathered, slightly fractured arkose.
TYPE LOCATION: Watauga County, North Carolina--Grandfather Mountain Area; about 2.4 miles east of Linville on U.S. Highway 221 to Blue Ridge Parkway; 5.2 miles northeast on the Blue Ridge Parkway to mile post 299.9 (Boone Fork
Parking Lot); 0.4 mile southwest on Tanawha Trail; 0.7 mile west on Grandfather Trail Extension; 0.5 mile south on the Cragway Trail to Top Crag; 25 feet west of Top Crag rock; USGS Grandfather Mountain topographic quadrangle; lat. 36 degrees 06 minutes 58 seconds N. and long. 81 degrees 47 minutes 28 seconds W, NAD27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to lithic contact with hard, unweathered
bedrock (R) ranges from 3 to 20 inches. Very thin mineral layers (4 inches or less) are at the soil-bedrock interface in most pedons. Rock fragments, mostly pebbles, cobbles, or flagstones range from 0 to 15 percent by volume. Content of mica flakes ranges from none to many. The organic material is extremely acid
or ultra acid (calcium chloride pH) and mineral layers are extremely acid to
strongly acid.
The Oi horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 10YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1 to 3, or has hue of N, value of 2 or 3. It is slightly decomposed leaves, needles, twigs, and moss (fibric material).
The Oe horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 10YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1 to 3, or has hue of N, value of 2 or 3. It is partially decomposed organic matter (hemic material).
The Oa horizon, where present, has hue of 2.5YR to 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 3, or has hue of N, value of 2 to 4. It is highly decomposed organic matter (sapric material).
The mineral horizons (A, AE, E, EB, Bw, Bs, Bhs, or C) are 4 inches or less in thickness. They have hue of 5YR to 5B, value of 2 to 7, and chroma of 1 to 6, or have hue of N, value of 2 to 8. Some pedons have mottles in shades of red, brown, yellow, or olive. Texture is loamy sand, loamy fine sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, very fine sandy loam, or loam.
Some pedons have a thin Cr layer at the soil-rock interface that is highly weathered, slightly fractured to highly fractured metasedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous rock. It is partially consolidated bedrock that has high excavation difficulty.
The R layer is hard, unweathered very slightly fractured to highly fractured metasedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous rock. Some R layers have vertical and horizontal fractures that are filled or coated with fine-earth material. This layer has very high or extremely high excavation difficulty.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series. Ricker soils are in a closely related family. Ricker soils are on landscapes affected by glacial activity in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and New York (MLRA's 143 and 144B) and have a cryic soil temperature regime. Clingman soils are on nonglacial landscapes or landscapes that may have been affected by periglacial activity and have a frigid soil temperature regime.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Clingman soils are on ridges and mountain slopes at high elevations in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The mean annual air temperature ranges from 35 to 45 degrees F., the frost-free season ranges from 90 to 135 days, and the average annual rainfall ranges from 45 to 100 inches. Elevation ranges from 4,000 to 6,700 feet. Slope ranges from 8 to 95 percent. These soils are on summits, nose slopes, side slopes, and head slopes. They formed in organic deposits underlain by a very thin mineral horizon over bedrock. Bedrock is commonly arkose, meta-arkose, metagraywacke, metasandstone, metaconglomerate, quartzite, granite, gneiss, or schist.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are Balsam, Burton, Craggey, Longhope (T), Tanasee, and Wayah soils. Balsam, Burton, Craggey, Tanasee, and Wayah soils are mineral. Balsam and Tanasee soils are very deep, and formed in colluvium materials. Craggey soils are shallow to lithic contact, Burton soils are moderately deep, and Wayah soils are very deep. Longhope soils are very poorly drained and are in broad upland drainageways (fens).
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained or well drained. Permeability is moderately rapid in the organic layers and moderate or moderately rapid in the mineral horizon. These soils may be saturated for short periods during heavy rainfall or snow melt. Surface runoff is slow or medium in undisturbed areas and rapid or very rapid in disturbed areas.
USE AND VEGETATION: Areas of Clingman soils are used for watershed protection, recreation, wildlife habitat, and forestry. Most areas are wooded. Wooded areas are dominantly windswept and native vegetation is stunted and broken from wind and ice damage. Common overstory trees are northern red oak, red spruce, Fraser fir, and yellow birch. Most nonforested areas have a ground cover of native grasses and shrubs. Rhododendron, American mountainash, sassafrass, mountain laurel, blueberry, striped maple, bearberry, flame azalea, blueridge goldenrod, trillium, and
turkey-beard are common understory plants. Small areas are in grasses, commonly mountain oatgrass and heath balds.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The high mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, and possibly Virginia. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Watauga County, North Carolina; 2001.
REMARKS: Clingman soils are on relatively stable landscapes. They were formerly mapped with the Craggey series. Craggey soils are shallow, mineral soils. The 1/99 revision updates classification to the 8th Edition of Keys to Soil Taxonomy.
Revisions on 9/27(HCD) were to clean up formatting errors in the OSD.
Diagnostic horizons and soil characteristics recognized in this pedon are:
Lithic contact - hard, unweathered bedrock at a depth of 18 inches (R layer).
The surface tier consists of fibric, hemic, or sapric organic materials. The thickness of the organic materials (14 inches) is more than twice that of the mineral soil (4 inches) above the lithic contact and the organic materials extend to within 4 inches or less of the lithic contact.
SIR = NC0202
MLRA = 130
Revised: 11/99-MKC
ADDITIONAL DATA: Laboratory data is available from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN for the following pedons: S94NC-189-01 (organic layers only).