LOCATION SEABOARD FLEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Thermic, uncoated Lithic Quartzipsamments
TYPICAL PEDON: Seaboard fine sand - on a 1 percent slope of forested low uplands. (Colors are for moist conditions.)
A--0 to 6 inches; light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) fine sand; single grained; loose; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (3 to 9 inches thick)
C--6 to 14 inches; light gray (10YR 7/2) fine sand; many coarse white (10YR 8/1) streaks and pockets of clean sands; single grained; loose; slightly acid; abrupt irregular boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
2R--14 inches; fractured porous limestone bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Wakulla County, Florida. Approximately 20 feet west of major powerline; about 1,200 feet south of State Road 365, and about 0.5 miles southwest of Wakulla; NW 1/4, NE 1/4. Sec. 16, T. 3 S., R. 1 E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to limestone ranges from 10 to 20 inches. Soil reaction ranges from strongly acid to moderately acid in the surface and moderately acid to neutral in the underlying horizon. Many pedons have up to 5 percent, by volume, pebble to boulder-size limestone or chert fragments at the soil surface, or within the soil.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 4 to 7, and chroma of 1 to 3. Texture is sand or fine sand.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 5 to 8, and chroma of 2 to 6. Masses of iron accumulation range in shades of brown or yellow range from none to common. Most pedons have few to common, fine to coarse pockets of white or light gray sand grains, with chroma of 2. The chroma of 2 is due to uncoated sand grains and does not indicate wetness. Texture is sand or fine sand.
The Cr horizon, where present, has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 6 or 8, and chroma of 1 to 4. It is composed of soft, weathered, fractured limestone that can be dug with difficulty with a spade, has very firm to extremely firm rupture resistance with low to high excavation difficulty. It usually contains soft carbonate accumulations along with few to many hard limestone or chert fragments. It is highly irregular and interspersed with solution holes that range from 4 to 12 inches in diameter and filled with sandy loam to sandy clay textured soil material. Depth to limestone is variable within short distances.
The 2R horizon is composed of hard, unweathered limestone that has slightly rigid to very rigid rupture resistance with very high to extremely excavation difficulty. Some areas contain solution holes filled with Btg and/or Cr material.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other known series in this family.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Seaboard soils are on low uplands. They formed in sandy marine or eolian sediments overlying porous limestone bedrock. Slopes range from 0 to 3 percent. The average annual temperature ranges from 66 to 70 degrees F., and the average annual rainfall ranges from 50 to 60 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These include the Moriah, Ortega, Otela, Ridgewood and Shadeville soils. The somewhat poorly drained Moriah soils have an argillic horizon and are deep to limestone bedrock. Ortega, Otela, and Ridgewood soils are very deep. In addition, Otela soils have argillic horizons and Ridgewood soils are somewhat poorly drained. Shadeville soils are deep to limestone and have argillic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained; rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Seaboard soils are forested. Natural vegetation consists of slash pine, laurel oak, live oak, hickory, persimmon, and dogwood. The understory consists of native grasses and shrubs including pineland threeawn and greenbrier.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: These soils are of minor extent on the Lower Coastal Plain.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Auburn, Alabama.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Wakulla County, Florida, 1988.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - The zone from the surface to a depth of about 6 inches (A horizon).
Lithic Contact - at a depth of 14 inches (2R horizon).
A seasonal high water table below depths of 48 inches occurs within the fractured porous limestone bedrock.