LOCATION SUR CAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, mesic Entic Haploxerolls
TYPICAL PEDON: Sur stony sandy loam, mixed hardwoods. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
01--2 inches to 0; variable litter of oak, tanoak, laurel, and madrone leaves and twigs; slightly acid (pH 6.4); abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 4 inches thick)
A1--0 to 7 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) stony sandy loam, very dark brown (10YR 2/2) moist; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common very fine roots; common fine tubular and many very fine and fine interstitial pores; about 3 percent subangular surface stones and cobblestones; and 5 to 10 percent mostly 2 to 20 mm but ranging to 60 mm subangular fragments; slightly acid (pH 6.5); clear wavy boundary. (7 to 20 inches thick)
C--7 to 24 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) stony sandy loam, dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; weak medium subangular blocky and weak fine granular structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; many fine, medium and coarse roots; many very fine tubular and interstitial and common fine tubular pores; subangular stones, cobblestones, and smaller fragments are 40 to 50 percent of the volume of the horizon, the fragment content increasing with increasing depth; slightly acid (pH 6.4); clear irregular boundary. (10 to 35 percent thick)
R--24 to 30 inches; fractured schist, some soil in fractures.
TYPE LOCATION: Monterey County, California; 1.1 miles east from summit Nacimiento-Ferguson Road, 0.3 miles northeast from Carrals Springs, SE1/4 SE1/4 SE1/4 section 17, T.22S., R.5E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to a lithic contact is 20 to 40 inches. The mean annual soil temperature is 54 to 58 degrees F. and the soil temperature usually is not below 47 degrees F. or is not below 47 degrees F. after mid-February. The soil between depths of about 8 and 25 inches usually is dry all of the time from June until October, and usually is moist in all parts all the rest of the year. Rock fragments make up on the average 35 to 65 percent of the volume of soil below 10 inches. Textures throughout are coarse sandy loam, sandy loam or fine sandy loam and the soil is medium acid to neutral.
The A horizon is dark gray, gray, grayish brown, dark grayish brown, very dark grayish brown and brown (10YR 5/1, 4/1, 4/2, 3/2, 5/3). It has 3 to 8 percent organic matter in the upper part, decreasing regularly to less than 1 percent between the depths of 10 and 20 inches. Base saturation is 75 to 90 percent.
The C horizon is brown, light brown, pale brown or light yellowish brown. In some pedons, the C horizon is massive and in some it has subangular blocky or granular structure.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Crafton, Gamboa, La Posta, Lopez, Plaskett, San Andreas, Shaver, Sheridan, and Tollhouse series. Crafton and San Andreas soils have soil temperature warmer than 59 degrees F. and contain less than 35 percent rock fragments. Gamboa soils have a mollic epipedon more than 20 inches thick. La Posta soils have a sand or loamy sand control section. Lopez and Plaskett soils are less than 20 inches deep to a lithic contact. Shaver and Sheridan soils have a mollic epipedon more than 20 inches thick and a control section contains less than 35 percent rock fragments. Tollhouse soils have a paralithic contact at a depth of less than 20 inches.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Sur soils are on uplands and have slopes of 30 to 85 percent. Elevations are 1,500 to 5,500 feet. Surface rock outcrops, boulders; stones and cobblestones in variable proportions, cover 1 to 25 percent of the surface and there is some gravitational downslope movement of soil. The soils formed in residuum weathered from schist, sandstone, shale, gneiss, and acid igneous rocks. The climate is subhumid mesothermal with warm, dry summers and cool, moist winters with some snow on ridge tops and on north exposures. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 80 inches. The average January temperature is about 40 to 45 degrees F.; the average July temperature is 64 to 66 degrees F.; and the mean annual temperature is 53 to 57 degrees F. The frost free season is 150 to 250 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Cienba and Los Gatos soils and the competing Gamboa, Shaver, and Sheridan soils. Cieneba soils have a paralithic contact at depths of less than 20 inches and a mean soil temperature more than 59 degrees F. Los Gatos soils have argillic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained; rapid or very rapid runoff; moderately rapid permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for recreation, wildlife, and watershed. Principal native vegetation is canyon live oak, interior live oak, tanoak, madrone, laurel, manzanita, buckbrush, poison oak, and ferns. Some sugar pine, coulter, and ponderosa pines occupy north exposures along with scattered clumps of Santa Lucia fir. Pockets of redwoods are in canyons near the Pacific Ocean.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: In the Santa Lucia Range and scattered small areas in northern part of Gabilan Range in Monterey County, California. The soils are moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Davis, California
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Monterey County, California, 1972.
REMARKS: The activity class was added to the classification in March of 2003. Competing series were not checked at that time. - ET