LOCATION NUNAPIK AK
Established Series
MPS/SAS
05/2022
NUNAPIK SERIES
Landscape--hills
Landform--hillslope, saddle
Microfeature--mounds
Slope--0 to 15 percent
Parent material--mossy organic material over loess
Mean annual precipitation--about 540 mm
Mean annual air temperature--about -4 degrees C
Depth class--very deep (shallow to permafrost)
Drainage class--poorly drained
Soil moisture regime--aquic
Soil temperature regimegelic
Soil moisture subclass--typic
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, isotic, nonacid, subgelic Typic Historthels
TYPICAL PEDON: Nunapik peat on a west northwest facing convex, linear backslope on a slope of 15 percent at an elevation of 330 m (The soil was wet, non-satiated, from 0 to 9 cm and wet, satiated, from 9 to 22 cm, and dry from 28 to 36 cm and moist from 22 to 28 cm and 36 to 150 cm when described on June 6, 2019.)
Oi--0 to 8 cm; peat, reddish yellow (7.5YR 7/8) dry, strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) moist; nonsmeary; many very fine and fine roots; very strongly acid (pH 4.5); abrupt broken boundary
Oa--8 to 22 cm; muck, dark gray (10YR 4/1) dry, black (10YR 2/1) moist; nonsmeary; many very fine and common fine roots; moderately acid (pH 5.8); abrupt smooth boundary
A--22 to 40 cm; highly organic silt, brown (10YR 5/3) dry, very dark brown (7.5YR 2.5/2) moist; weak granular structure; nonsmeary; many very fine and common fine roots; moderately acid (pH 5.7); abrupt smooth boundary
Cgf--40 to 150 cm; permanently frozen silt loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry, dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) moist; massive; slightly hard, friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; nonsmeary; common very fine roots; common coarse irregular pores; 2 percent fine reddish yellow (7.5YR 6/8) masses of oxidized iron and 3 percent very fine light olive gray (5Y 6/2) iron depletions; 3 percent medium gravel; moderately acid (pH 6.0)
TYPE LOCATION: Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area County, Alaska, latitude 63.4313850, longitude -160.4594000 degrees, datum WGS84 (Coordinates determined with a GPS unit)
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:
Mean annual soil temperature-- -2 to 0 degrees C
Soil moisture control section--saturated at the soil surface for at least two weeks during the growing season
Thickness of histic epipedon--20 to 40 cm
Depth to permafrost contact--35 to 50 cm
Depth to redoximorphic iron depletions--35 to 50 cm
Depth to redoximorphic iron concentrations--35 to 50 cm
Particle Size Control Section:
*Clay--18 to 28 percent
*Total rock fragment content--0 to 3 percent medium gravel
*Sodium fluoride pH--8.4 to 11.6
*Ratio of 1500 kPa water to measured clay--0.6 to 6.0
Oi horizon
Thickness--5 to 20 cm
Oa horizon
Thickness--10 to 25 cm
A horizon
Hue--7.5YR or 10YR
Value--2.5 or 3 moist, 4 or 5 dry
Chroma--2 or 3
Fine-earth texture--silt, silt loam
Clay--6 to 18 percent
Sand--5 to 40 percent
Organic carbon--8 to 12 percent
Reaction--4.7 to 5.7
Thickness--10 to 20 cm
Cgf horizon
Hue--10YR or 2.5Y
Value--2.5 or 4 moist, 4 or 6 dry
Chroma--1 to 3
Fine-earth texture--permanently frozen silt loam, permanently frozen loam
Clay--18 to 26 percent
Sand--20 to 45 percent
Organic carbon--1 to 3 percent
Total rock fragment content--0 to 3 percent medium gravel
Reaction--5.3 to 6.4
COMPETING SERIES: None
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
*Elevation--100 to 1000 m
*Climate--warm, moist summers; cold, dry winters
*Mean annual precipitation--370 to 745 mm
*Mean annual air temperature-- -6 to -2 degrees C
*Frost-free period--45 to 80 days
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
*
Iiguk--cryic soil temperature regime, ochric epipedon; shoulders, ridges, and upper backslopes of mountains and hills
*
Nulatohills--no permafrost present, andic soil properties from 18 to 34 cm, mixed minerology, loamy-skeletal particle-size class, cryic soil temperature regime, hillslopes and mountain slopes
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
*Drainage class--poorly drained
*Ponding--occasional, brief
*Saturation during normal years--saturated at the soil surface for at least two weeks during the growing season, saturated throughout the profile from a depth of 0 to 25 during the rest of the growing season
*Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat)--high in the histic epipedon, moderately high in the unfrozen mineral soil layers, very low in the permafrost layer
USE AND VEGETATION:
Use--wildlife habitat, recreation, subsistence
Potential native vegetation--Siberian alder, tealeaf willow, black crowberry, bog blueberry, lingonberry, dwarf birch, marsh Labrador tea, tussock cottongrass Bigelow's sedge, knights plume moss, Schreber's big red stem moss, Moss, splendid feather moss, sphagnum, greygreen reindeer lichen, reindeer lichen, cup lichen,
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Nulato Hills-Southern Seward Peninsula Highlands, Alaska; MLRA 240; moderate extent
SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (SSRO) RESPONSIBLE: WASILLA, ALASKA
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Nulato Hills BLM area, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska; 2021
REMARKS:
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon
*Particle-size control section--zone from 47 to 122 cm
*Histic epipedon--zone from 0 to 22 cm
*Aquic conditions--zone from 0 to 150 cm
*Cambic horizon--zone from 22 to 40 cm
*Redoximorphic concentrations--zone from 40 to 150 cm
*Redoximorphic depletions with chroma of 2 or less--zone from 40 to 150 cm
*Depth to permafrost--40 cm
*Reduced matrix--zone from 40 to 150cm
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.