LOCATION NUVUK AK
Established Series
MPS/SAS/TJR
05/2022
NUVUK SERIES
Landscape--mountains
Landform--mountain slopes, ridges
Slope--0 to 25 percent
Parent material--mossy organic material over colluvium
Mean annual precipitation--about 505 mm
Mean annual air temperature--about -3 degrees C
Depth class--very deep
Drainage class--moderately well drained
Soil moisture regime--aquic
Soil temperature regime--gelic
Soil moisture subclass--typic
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, nonacid, subgelic Aquic Haplogelepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Nuvuk silt loam on a north northwest facing convex, linear shoulder, on a slope of 4 percent at an elevation of 697 m (The soil was wet from 0 to 20 cm, wet, satiated, from 20 to 21 cm, moist from 21 to 90 cm, and wet from 90 to 150 cm when described on June 22, 2018.)
Oe--0 to 21 cm; moderately decomposed plant material, brown (7.5YR 5/2) dry, dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) moist; many very fine and common fine, medium, and coarse roots; strongly acid (pH 5.2); abrupt wavy boundary
A--21 to 38 cm; silt loam, 98 percent grayish brown (10YR 5/2) and 2 percent brown (10YR 5/3) dry, 98 percent very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) and 2 percent dark brown (10YR 3/3) moist; weak very thin platy structure; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; many very fine roots and common fine roots; 5 percent coarse prominent irregular strongly cemented brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) masses of oxidized iron with sharp boundaries in matrix; 5 percent gravel; strongly acid (pH 5.5); clear wavy boundary
Bw--38 to 51 cm; gravelly silt loam, light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) dry, dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) moist; moderate medium granular structure; very friable, slightly sticky, nonplastic; common very fine roots; common very fine irregular pores; 25 percent gravel; moderately acid (pH 5.8); clear wavy boundary
BC--51 to 72 cm; silt loam, 90 percent yellow (10YR 7/6) and 10 percent pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry, 90 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and 10 percent brown (10YR 4/3) moist; weak medium subangular blocky structure; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; 40 percent extremely coarse prominent lenticular strongly cemented dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) iron depletions with sharp boundaries between peds; strongly acid (pH 5.5);clear wavy boundary
Cg--72 to 150 cm; very gravelly silt loam, 70 percent light olive gray (5Y 6/2) and 30 percent pale yellow (5Y 8/2) dry, 70 percent olive gray (5Y 4/2) and 30 percent very dark gray (2.5Y 3/1) moist; massive; very friable, nonsticky, nonplastic; 3 percent prominent spherical strongly cemented red (2.5YR 5/6) masses of oxidized iron with sharp boundaries and 10 percent prominent irregular strongly cemented very dark gray (2.5Y 3/1) masses of reduced iron with diffuse boundaries in matrix; 10 percent channers, 26 percent gravel; moderately acid (pH 5.6)
TYPE LOCATION: Nome Census Area County, Alaska, latitude 63.1021730 longitude -161.3051260 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 a depth of between 50 and 100 cm for more than two weeks
Thickness of folistic epipedon--15 to 25 cm
Thickness of cambic horizon--25 to 75 cm
Depth to reduced matrix--50 to 100 cm
Depth to redoximorphic iron concentrations--20 to 75 cm
Depth to aquic conditions--50 to 100 cm
Depth to redoximorphic iron depletions--50 to 100 cm
Particle Size Control Section:
*Clay--12 to 18 percent
*Total fragments--15 to 35 percent gravels, channers
Oe horizon
Thickness--15 to 25 cm
A horizon
Hue--7.5YR or 10YR
Value--2 to 3 moist, 4 or 5 dry
Chroma--1 to 3
Fine-earth texture--silt, silt loam
Clay--4 to 13 percent
Sand--5 to 30 percent
Organic carbon--5 to 12 percent
Total rock fragment content--0 to 5 percent gravel
Reaction--4.8 to 5.8
Thickness--5 to 17 cm
Bw horizon
Hue--10YR or 2.5Y
Value--4 or 5 moist, 6 or 7 dry
Chroma--2 to 4
Fine-earth texture--loam, silt loam
Clay--10 to 16 percent
Sand--20 to 45 percent
Organic carbon--3 to 5 percent
Total rock fragment content--5 to 25 percent gravel
Reaction--5.4 to 6.0
Thickness--10 to 25 cm
BC horizon
Hue--10YR or 2.5YR
Value--4 or 5 moist, 6 or 7 dry
Chroma--2 to 6
Fine-earth texture--silt loam, loam
Clay--8 to 18 percent
Sand--15 to 45 percent
Organic carbon--2 to 3 percent
Total rock fragment content--0 to 25 percent
Total gravel content--0 to 25 percent
Total channer content--0 to 25 percent
Reaction--5.4 to 6.3
Thickness--10 to 50 cm
Cg horizon
Hue--2.5Y or 5Y
Value--3 to 5 moist, 5 to 7 dry
Chroma--1 or 2
Fine-earth texture--silt loam, loam
Clay--13 to 22 percent
Sand--10 to 45 percent
Organic carbon--1 to 2 percent
Total rock fragment content--10 to 45 percent
Total gravel content--10 to 45 percent
Total channer content--0 to 10 percent
Reaction--5.6 to 6.4
COMPETING SERIES: none
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
*Elevation--50 to 1000 m
*Climate--warm, moist summers; cold, dry winters
*Mean annual precipitation--370 to 745 mm
*Mean annual air temperature-- -5 to -1 degrees C
*Frost-free period--55 to 90 days
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
*
Cascadecreek--ochric epipedon, isotic mineralogy, loamy-skeletal particle-size class, udic soil moisture regime, cryic soil temperature regime; hillslopes, and mountain slopes
*
Cuyaqsak--umbric epipedon, isotic mineralogy, loamy-skeletal particle-size class, cryic soil temperature regime; swales on mountains and hills
*
Bonasila--umbric epipedon, isotic mineralogy, loamy-skeletal particle-size class, udic soil moisture regime; hillslopes and mountain slopes
*MountMcDonald--shallow to paralithic contact, umbric epipedon, loamy-skeletal particle-size class, ridges and mountain slopes
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
*Drainage class--moderately well drained
*Ponding--frequent, very long
*Saturation during normal years--saturated at a depth of between 50 and 100 cm for more than two weeks during the growing season
*Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat)--very high in the surface organic layer, high to moderately high throughout the rest of the profile
USE AND VEGETATION:
Use--wildlife habitat, recreation, subsistence
Potential native vegetation--smallawned sedge, tussock cottongrass, grass graminoid, ehite cottongrass, tall cottongrass, Bigelow's sedge, netleaf willow, eightpetal mountain-avens, tealeaf willow, captiate valerian, arctic sweet coltsfeet, Langsdorf's lousewort, reindeer lichen, polar willow, knights plume moss, splendid feather moss, sphagnum, bluejoint, black crowberry, lingonberry, marsh Labrador tea, dwarf birch, Siberian alder, beaverd spirea, star reindeer lichen, island cetraria, lichen, greygreen reindeer lichen, cup lichen, cetraria lichen, Schreber's big red stem moss, polytrichum moss
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, Nome Census Area, Alaska; 2021
REMARKS:
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon
*Particle-size control section--zone from 46 to 121 cm
*Folistic epipedon--zone from 0 to 21 cm
*Redoximorphic iron concentrations--zone from 21 to 38 cm and 72 to 150 cm
*Cambic horizon--zone from 21 to 51 cm
*Aquic conditions-zone from 51 to 150 cm
*Reduced matrix--zone rom 72 to 150 cm
*Redoximorphic iron depletions with chroma 2 or less--zone from 51 to 150 cm
________________________________________
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.