LOCATION DOTLAKE                 AK

Established Series
Rev. SR
02/2022

DOTLAKE SERIES

The Dotlake series consists of poorly drained soils formed in micaceous silty or loamy materials over sand. Dotlake soils are in depressions on
sandy outwash plains and swales between low dunes adjoining the plains. Slopes range from 0 to 3 percent. The mean annual temperature is about 27 degrees F., and the average annual precipitation is about 12 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS:

TYPICAL PEDON: Dotlake silt loam - nearly level swale between dunes. (All colors are for moist soil)

Oi--3 inches to 0; mat of undecomposed organic materials; many roots; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.

A--0 to 1 inch; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) silt loam; weak very fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; many roots; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.

B2g--1 to 15 inches; gray (10YR 5/1) silt loam; many coarse prominent mottles of dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) that make up about 50 percent of the matrix; weak thin platy structure; friable; few roots;
medium acid; abrupt smooth boundary.

2C--15 to 28 inches; dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) fine sand; few thin silty lenses; single grained; loose; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary over frozen sand (early summer).

2Cf--28 inches; permafrost.


TYPE LOCATION: Totchaket Area, Alaska; NW 1/4 SE 1/4 SE 1/4, section 31, T. 3S., R. 12W., Fairbanks Meridian.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The upper 10 to 15 inches ranges from silt loam to sandy loam. Thickness and number of silty or loamy lenses in the 2C horizon is highly variable. Depth to perennially frozen soil ranges from 5 to more than 40 inches, depending on the thickness of the O horizon.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Batza, Bradway, and Tanana series in the same family. Batza soils are not stratified and do not have substantial mica content. Bradway soils have mucky surface horizons. Tanana soils have less than 15 percent fine sand or coarser throughout the control section.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Dotlake soils occupy depressions in sandy outwash plains and swales between low dunes adjoining the plains. Slopes range from 0 to 3 percent. The mean annual temperature ranges from 24 to 32 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation from 10 to 20 inches.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Bradway and Tanana soils, and the Beales, Nenana, Teklanika, and Volkmar soils. Beales and Teklanika soils are on uplands and are dominantly sandy. Nenana soils have a loess cap over a sandy or sandy-skeletal substratum. Volkmar soils formed in loess over a sandy or sandy-skeletal substratum, and have mottles in a high chroma matrix.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly drained. Slow to ponded runoff. Moderate permeability above the permafrost.

USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all areas are in the natural vegetation, which is black spruce, sedges, shrubs, mosses, and lichens. After drainage, the soils could be used for small grains, grasses, and hardy vegetables.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The soils are moderately extensive in the interior Alaska lowlands.

SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: WASILLA, ALASKA

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Totchaket Area, Alaska, 1978.

REMARKS: Dotlake soils in the Salcha-Big Delta soil survey (1973) were correlated as Tanana silt loam, sand subsoil variant because of low acreage. The Dotlake series is poorly defined and overlaps several other permafrost soils and "thawing" phases (jpm, 11/86).

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National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.