LOCATION WISCOY NY
Established Series
SEA
04/2013
WISCOY SERIES
The Wiscoy series consists of very deep, somewhat poorly drained soils formed in a mantle of till underlain with silty lacustrine deposits. These soils contain a dense fragipan. They are on elevated lake plains and toeslopes of valley sides. Slope ranges from 0 to 15 percent. Mean annual temperature is 45 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation is 36 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Aeric Fragiaquepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Wiscoy channery silt loam on a 4 percent slope in a hay field. (Colors and are for moist soil, unless otherwise noted.)
Ap -- 0 to 10 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) channery silt loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry; moderate fine and medium granular structure; friable; many fine and common medium roots; 15 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick.)
Eg -- 10 to 14 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) channery silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine and medium roots; common fine and medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation in the matrix; 15 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick.)
Bx1 -- 14 to 34 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) channery silt loam; weak very coarse prismatic structure parting to moderate coarse subangular blocky; few fine roots along prism faces; firm, brittle; prism faces are 1/4 inch wide and 4 inches apart with grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) exteriors and strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) borders; grayish brown colors are iron depletions and strong brown colors are masses of iron accumulation; common fine and medium distinct grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) iron depletions and common fine and medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation in the matrix; few fine prominent dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) manganese concretions; 15 percent rock fragments; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bx horizon is 10 to 24 inches).
2Bx2 -- 34 to 38 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; weak very coarse prismatic structure parting to weak thick platy; firm, slightly brittle; few fine roots along prism faces; prism faces are 1/4 inch wide and 4 inches apart with grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) exteriors and strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) borders; grayish brown colors are iron depletions and strong brown colors are masses of iron accumulation; common fine and medium distinct grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) iron depletions and common fine and medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation in the matrix; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick.)
2C -- 38 to 72 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; massive with moderate thick plate like divisions; friable; few fine roots; common medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation and few medium distinct grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) iron depletions in the matrix; neutral.
TYPE LOCATION: Allegany County, New York; Town of Rushford; 4,500 feet north of the intersection of NY Route 243 and County Route 23, and 20 feet west of County Route 23. USGS Houghton, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 23 minutes, 55 seconds N. and Longitude 78 degrees, 14 minutes, 01 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 26 to 40 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Thickness of the loamy mantle ranges from 20 to 60 inches. Rock fragments, mainly gravels and subrounded channers, range from 10 to 30 percent by volume in the horizons above the lacustrine materials, and from 0 to 5 percent in the horizons within the lacustrine materials. Some pedons contain glacially reworked lacustrine materials below the loamy till mantle. These reworked lacustrine materials may have up to 10 percent rock fragments, mostly gravel. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to neutral throughout, generally increasing with depth.
The A or Ap horizon has a hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is loam or silt loam in the fine-earth fraction.
The Eg horizon, where present, has a hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 0 through 2. Texture is loam or silt loam in the fine-earth fraction. It has platy or blocky structure and is friable or firm. It has common or many, distinct or prominent iron accumulations, with chroma higher than the matrix.
Some pedons have a Bw or Bg horizon, in addition to or in place of the Eg horizon, with hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 6. Texture is loam, silt loam or silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction. It has blocky structure and is friable or firm. It has common or many redoximorphic features.
The Bx horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 6. Texture is loam, silt loam or silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is coarse or very coarse prismatic with platy, blocky or massive interiors. Consistence is firm or very firm, and brittle.
The 2Bx horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 6. Texture is loam, silt loam, silty clay loam or silty clay. Consistence is firm or very firm.
The 2C horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 5 and chroma of 1 through 4. Texture is loam, silt loam, silt, silty clay loam or silty clay. The material is massive with some plate like divisions. Consistence is firm.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the
Erie and the
Volusia series in the same family, both of which do not have the underlying, nearly rock fragment-free horizons within the control section.
The
Dalton and the
Wallington series are similar soils in related families. The Dalton series has a coarse-silty particle-size control section and does not have the underlying, nearly rock fragment-free horizons within the control section. The Wallington series also has a coarse silty particle-size control section and does not have the overlying loamy mantle.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Wiscoy soils are nearly level to strongly sloping soils on elevated lake plains and toeslopes of valley sides. Slope ranges from 0 to 15 percent. These soils formed in till derived mainly from siltstone, shale and fine-grained sandstone that overlies lacustrine silts and clays. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 48 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 40 inches, and the frost-free season ranges from 110 to 150 days. These soils are at elevations that range from 1,200 feet to 1,800 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing
Erie and
Volusia soils, and the
Mardin,
Rhinebeck,
Rushford, and
Valois soils. The Erie and the Volusia soils do not have the underlying, nearly rock fragment-free horizons within the control section. The Mardin soils are also on nearby higher areas that are moderately well drained and they do not have the underlying, nearly rock fragment-free horizons within the control section. Rhinebeck soils are on nearby landscapes that do not have a fragipan or the overlying loamy mantle. The Rushford soils have less clay in the control section and are on nearby higher areas that are moderately well drained. Valois soils are on nearby landscapes that are well drained, and do not have a fragipan or the underlying, nearly rock fragment-free horizons within the control section.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat poorly drained. Permeability is moderate above the fragipan, slow or very slow in the fragipan, and moderately slow or slow in the substratum. The potential for surface runoff is very low to high.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of this soil have been cleared and are used for permanent pasture or for hay. Native vegetation is mixed hardwoods of sugar maple, beech, white ash, black cherry, and softwoods of eastern white pine and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated Allegheny Plateau in southwestern and southcentral New York and northcentral Pennsylvania. MLRA 140. The series is moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Cattaraugus County, New York 2002.
REMARKS: This soil is currently being mapped in Cattaraugus County, New York and Allegany County, New York as map units 132A, 132B, and 132C (previously called Volusia channery silt loam, lacustrine substratum). Soils similar to the Wiscoy soil, but dominantly deeper than 40 inches to the lacustrine materials, have been previously mapped in Steuben County, New York as a component of the undifferentiated group Mardin and Volusia channery silt loams, silty substratum (5,145 Ac.), and in Tioga County, Pennsylvania as a Volusia channery silt loam, silty substratum (3,840 Ac.). Areas of this soil tend to be concentrated along north flowing river valleys and their tributaries.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to 10 inches (Ap horizon)
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 10 to 14 inches (Eg horizon)
3. Fragipan - the zone from 14 to 38 inches (Bx1 and 2Bx2 horizons)
4. Aquept suborder - an ochric epipedon underlain directly, or within 50 cm of the mineral soil surface, by a horizon with 50 percent or more of chroma 2 or less with redox. concentrations (Eg horizon - 10 to 14 inches)
5. Aeric subgroup - a horizon, between the plow layer and a depth of 75 cm below the mineral soil surface, with 50 percent or more of chroma of 3 or more (Bx1 horizon - 14 to 34 inches)
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.