LOCATION SCHOODIC MEEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, acid, frigid Lithic Udorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Schoodic very gravelly fine sandy loam, on a 4 percent slope in a wooded area. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Oe--0 to 3 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2) hemic material; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many very fine and fine roots and common medium roots; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (1 to 10 inches thick)
E--3 to 12 inches; pinkish gray (5YR 7/2) very gravelly fine sandy loam; moderate fine and medium granular structure; friable; many very fine roots; common fine and few medium roots; 25 percent angular gravel and 15 percent angular cobbles; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (1 to 10 inches thick)
R--12 inches; granite.
TYPE LOCATION: Hancock County, Maine; Town of Gouldsboro, 0.6 mile south of Maine Route 186 on the Prospect Point Road, 50 feet south of road; USGS Winter Harbor topographic quadrangle; lat. 44 degrees 23 minutes 15 seconds N. and long. 68 degrees 01 minute 26 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 1 to 12 inches but the thickness of the mineral portion of the solum is less than 10 inches. The layer of mineral soil directly above the bedrock is 4 inches or more thick and is one third or more of the total soil thickness. Rock fragments are more than 35 percent by volume and are mainly angular gravel and cobbles. Reaction ranges from extremely acid through strongly acid throughout.
The E horizon has hue of 2.5YR to 10YR, value of 4 to 7, and chroma of 1 or 2. It is fine sandy loam or sandy loam with less than 45 percent silt in the fine-earth fraction. It has weak or moderate, very fine to medium granular structure, or it is massive. Consistence is very friable or friable.
The bedrock is generally granite, gabbro, gneiss, diorite, phyllite, or schist.
COMPETING SERIES: The Hubbardton series is the only other series in the same family. Hubbardton soils have more than 45 percent silt in the particle-size control section and the rock fragments are flaggy.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Schoodic soils are on the crests and side slopes of bedrock-controlled ridges and mountains. Slope ranges from 0 to 80 percent. The soils formed in a thin mantle of glacial till derived mainly from granite and schist. The climate is humid and cool temperate. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 34 to 48 inches, and mean annual temperature ranges from 38 to 46 degrees F. The frost-free season ranges from 80 to 160 days. Elevation ranges from 5 to 2300 feet above mean sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Becket, Berkshire, Canaan, Colton, Dixfield, Hermon, Lyman, Marlow, Sheepscot, Skerry, and Tunbridge series. All of these soils have thicker solums, have spodic horizons, and are generally in valleys and on lower sideslopes.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained. Permeability is rapid.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mainly used for forestry. Common tree species include eastern white pine, jack pine, red spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, white birch, gray birch, eastern hemlock, and red oak. Vegetation also includes shrubs, ferns, sedges, mosses, and lichens.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT. Mainly at the lower elevations of mountains and in coastal areas of eastern Maine (MLRAs 143 and 144B). The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
REMARKS: 1. The Schoodic series includes soils formerly mapped with rock land and very rocky phases of Lyman and Canaan soils. 2. A major inclusion in mapping will be soils that have a very thin spodic horizon. 3. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 12 inches (Oe and E horizons).
b. Lithic contact - bedrock at 12 inches.
ADDITIONAL DATA: The Soil Interpretation Record number for the Schoodic series is: ME0097.