LOCATION PONLUKTULE              AK

Established Series
MPS/SAS/TJR
02/2022

PONLUKTULE SERIES


Landscape--valleys
Landform--terraces
Slope--0 to 3 percent
Parent material--mossy organic material over loess
Mean annual precipitation--about 455 mm
Mean annual air temperature--about -3 degrees C
Depth class--very deep (moderately deep to permafrost)
Drainage class--poorly drained
Soil moisture regime--aquic
Soil temperature regime--gelic
Soil moisture subclass--typic

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, isotic, euic, subgelic Terric Hemistels

TYPICAL PEDON: Ponluktule mucky peat on a linear, linear toeslope on a slope of 0 percent at an elevation of 181 m (The soil was wet, non-satiated from 0 to 20 cm and from 50 to 60 cm, and wet, satiated from 20 to 50 cm and from 60 to 150 cm when described on June 7, 2019.)

Oe--0 to 38 cm; mucky peat, reddish yellow (7.5YR 7/6) dry, strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) moist; many very fine and common medium and fine roots; very strongly acid (pH 4.7); abrupt wavy boundary

Oa--38 to 50 cm; muck, 75 percent light brown (7.5YR 6/3) and 15 percent dark gray (7.5YR 4/1) dry, 75 percent brown (7.5YR 4/3) and 15 percent black (7.5YR 2.5/1) moist; many very fine roots; moderately acid (pH 5.9); abrupt irregular boundary

Bw/Oajj--50 to 60 cm; silt loam, 80 percent brown (7.5YR 5/2) and 20 percent brown (10YR 4/3) dry, 80 percent dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) and 20 percent very dark brown (7.5YR 2.5/2) moist; weak medium subangular blocky structure; moderately hard, firm, nonsticky, nonplastic; nonsmeary; 10 percent medium irregular strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of oxidized iron; slightly acid (pH 6.2); abrupt irregular boundary

Cf/Oajj--60 to 150 cm; silt loam, 85 percent dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) and 15 percent brown (7.5YR 4/2) dry, 85 percent very dark brown (7.5YR 2.5/3) and 15 percent very dark brown (7.5YR 2.5/2) moist; massive; hard, very firm, nonsticky, nonplastic; nonsmeary; slightly acid (pH 6.3)

TYPE LOCATION: Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, latitude 63.4169100 longitude -160.5011100 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 0 and 25 cm during the growing season (aquic moisture regime)
Total thickness of organic soil layers--40 to 60 cm
Depth to permafrost contact--50 to 75 cm
Depth to cryoturbation--30 to 50 cm
Depth to redox concentrations-30 to 50 cm
Thickness of hemic soil material--35 to 60 cm

Particle Size Control Section:
*Clay--5 to 13 percent
*Sodium fluoride pH--8.4 to 11.6
*Ratio of 1500 kPa water to measured clay--0.6 to 6.0

Oe horizon
Value--3 to 5 moist, 5 to 7 dry
Chroma--3 to 6
Reaction--4.5 to 5.2
Organic carbon content--35 to 55 percent
Rubbed fiber content--17 to 40 percent
Thickness--35 to 60 cm

Oa horizon
Value--2.5 to 4 moist, 4 or 6 dry
Chroma--1 to 3
Reaction--5.4 to 6.5
Organic carbon content--35 to 55 percent
Rubbed fiber content--0 to 17 percent
Sodium pyrophosphate color value and chroma--when chroma is 2, value is 5 or less; when chroma is 3, value is 6 or less
Thickness--10 to 15 cm

Bw/Oajj horizon (Bw portion)
Hue--7.5YR or 10YR
Value--2.5 or 3 moist, 4 or 5 dry
Chroma--1 to 3
Fine-earth texture--silt, silt loam
Clay--5 to 13 percent
Sand--10 to 30 percent
Organic carbon--1 to 3 to percent
Reaction--5.4 to 6.4
Thickness--5 to 15 cm

Cf/Oajj horizon (Cf portion)
Hue--7.5YR or 10YR
Value--2.5 to 4 moist, 4 or 6 dry
Chroma--2 or 3
Fine-earth texture--permanently frozen silt, permanently frozen silt loam
Clay--5 to 15 percent
Sand--5 to 35 percent
Organic carbon--1 to 3 to percent
Reaction--6.0 to 7.0
Thickness--50 to 100 cm

COMPETING SERIES:
Ryanlake--fibric soil material present; terraces on coastal plains

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
*Elevation--50 to 700 m
*Climate--warm, moist summers; cold, dry winters
*Mean annual precipitation--385 to 590 mm
*Mean annual air temperature-- -5 to -1 degrees C
*Frost-free period--55 to 90 days

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
* Sprucecreek--folistic epipedon, cryic soil temperature regime, udic soil moisture regime, no permafrost, terraces in valleys
* Jacksoncreek--histic epipedon, reduced matrix present; terraces in valleys

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
*Drainage class--poorly drained
*Saturation during normal years--saturated at a depth between of 0 and 25 cm during more than 2 weeks 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--reindeer lichen, dwarf birch, bog blueberry, marsh Labrador tea, black crowberry, sedge, bluejoint, sphagnum, black spruce, lingonberry, tussock cottongrass, Bigelow's sedge, water sedge, Bering Sea sedge, whiteworm lichen, greygreen reindeer lichen, Blandow's helodium moss

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Yukon-Kuskokwim Highlands, Alaska; MLRA 230; small 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 50 to 130 cm
*Hemic soil materials--zone from 0 to 38 cm
*Redox concentrations--zone from 50 to 60 cm
*Aquic conditions--zone from 0 to 150 cm
*Sapric soil materials--zone from 38 to 50 cm
*Cryoturbation--zone from 50 to 150 cm
*Depth to permafrost--60 cm

________________________________________

National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.