LOCATION PLYMOUTH NY MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Mesic, coated Typic Quartzipsamments
TYPICAL PEDON: Plymouth loamy sand, on a nearly level slope in a wooded area. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A-- 0 to 4 inches (0 to 10 centimeters); very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) loamy sand; very weak medium granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; many clean white sand grains; 5 percent fine gravel; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (1 to 4 inches (3 to 10 centimeters) thick.)
Bw1-- 4 to 10 inches (10 to 25 centimeters); yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) loamy sand; single grain and very weak medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; common fine roots; material like A horizon is 20 percent of the mass; 5 percent fine gravel; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 10 to 17 inches (25 to 43 centimeters); yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) loamy sand; single grain; loose; common fine roots; 5 percent fine gravel; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bw3-- 17 to 27 inches (43 to 69 centimeters); brown (7.5YR 5/4) loamy sand; massive; very friable; few roots; 10 percent fine gravel; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 19 to 32 inches (48 to 81 centimeters).)
2C-- 27 to 70 inches (69 to 178 centimeters); yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) gravelly coarse sand; 30 percent gravel 1 inch and less in diameter; single grain; loose; few very fine roots; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Suffolk County, New York; Heckscher State Park.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 20 through 40 inches (50 through 100 centimeters). Bedrock is at depths greater than 2 meters. The content of rock fragments, mostly gravel and cobbles, ranges from 0 through 30 percent in individual horizons of the solum and 2 through 50 percent in the substratum, more than 15 percent in the substratum above 40 inches (100 centimeters), but no more than 34 percent in an individual layer within a depth of 40 inches (100 centimeters). The soil ranges from extremely acid through strongly acid throughout.
Some pedons have an O horizon.
The A or Ap horizon, if present, has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 2 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 3. It is loamy coarse sand, sand, loamy sand, coarse sandy loam or sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. Some pedons have a thin E horizon below the A horizon.
The B horizon has hue of 5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 through 8, with hue as red as 5YR restricted to subhorizons. It is coarse sand to loamy fine sand in the fine-earth fraction. It is very friable or loose. Some pedons have a Bh, Bs, Bhs, or BC horizon.
The 2C or C horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 5 through 7, and chroma of 1 through 6. It is sand or coarse sand in the fine-earth fraction.
COMPETING SERIES: The Eastchop, Gosil, Rockbluff, and Schaffenaker series are in the same family. Eastchop soils have less than 15 percent rock fragments in the substratum. Gosil, Rockbluff, and Schaffenaker series are from outside LRR R. Gosil soils have less than 10 percent rock fragments in the lower part of the series control section. Rockbluff and Schaffernaker soils have lithic contact at 50 to 100 centimeters.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Plymouth soils are nearly level to steep soils on glaciofluvial plains and uneven moderately hilly moraines. Slope ranges from 0 through 35 percent. The soils formed in acid, coarse textured material derived largely from siliceous rocks. The underlying sands and gravel extend to great depths. Annual precipitation ranges from 35 through 56 inches (889 through 1422 millimeters). Mean annual air temperature ranges from 49 through 52 degrees F. (9 through 11 degrees C.), and mean annual growing season ranges from 180 through 220 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the moderately coarse textured Riverhead, the medium textured Haven, and the deep silty Bridgehampton soils. Carver soils are extensively associated with the coarser range of the Plymouth series.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Excessively drained. Runoff is slow to moderate. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is high or very high in the mineral solum and very high in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Small areas are used for cropland. Most areas are in woodland, or are used for urban and suburban development. Principal trees are white and black oak, pitch pine, and scrub oak.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Long Island, New York and southeast Massachusetts. MLRA 149B. The soils are of large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1911.
REMARKS: This revision reflects changes to the range in characteristics as well as general updating to metric units. The series was inactivated in 1961, and was reactivated in 1969. The soil was previously classified as siliceous, mesic Typic Udipsamments. Data from New York and Massachusetts show less than 10 percent weatherable minerals.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in this pedon are:
1) Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 4 inches (0 to 10 centimeters) (A horizon).
2) Quartzipsamments great group - the determinant fraction (0.02 to 2 mm) is more than 90 percent resistant minerals.
3) Particle-size control section - the zone from 10 through 40 inches (25 through 100 centimeters) (Bw2, Bw3, 2C horizons).
4) Lithologic discontinuity - at a depth of 27 inches (69 centimeters).