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 Hydric soils
 

Soil Climate Site - Granite Creek, Alaska
 

Photo of the Granite Creek soil climate site.

 

 

 SNOTEL Site: Granite Creek
Location: 63° 56’ 38’’ N, 145° 23’ 29’’ W
Elevation: 380 meters
Landform: alluvial plain
Slope: 0 percent
Aspect: N/A
Vegetation: mixed spruce-quaking aspen/ericaceous shrub forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Photo of the soil profile at the Granite Creek soil climate site.
Map showing the location of the Granite Creek soil climate site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Domain:  Soil temperature and moisture data are representative of fire induced mid-seral forest communities (50 to 75 years since fire) that once were underlain by permafrost but have thawed and drained since fire. Soils are formed in loamy alluvial deposits on alluvial plains in the Interior Alaska Highlands, Interior Alaska Lowlands, Upper Kobuk and Koyukuk Hills and Valleys, and Yukon Flats Lowlands, and the Copper River Basin Highlands Major Land Resource Areas (illustrated in red).

US Soil Taxonomy:  coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal mixed superactive, subgelic Typic Historthels,
Parent Material: silty and sandy alluvium over sandy and gravelly alluvium
General Soil Profile Description:
  Oe-0 to 8 cm; very dark brown; moderately decomposed plant material; pH 4.2
  A-8 to 14 cm; dark brown; silt loam; pH 4.8
  Bw-14 to 38 cm; dark yellowish brown; silt loam; pH 4.8
  C1and C2-38 to 96 cm; brown; stratified sand through silt; pH 5.4 to 5.9
  2C3-96 to 152 cm; dark yellowish brown; extremely cobbly  loamy sand; pH 4.6
Notable Features:  Gray and red patches in the upper part of the soil profile, or redoximorphic features, are indicators of previously wet site conditions.  Before the site was altered by fire, the soil had a significantly thicker organic mat, permafrost within a meter of the surface and a perched water table above the permafrost.

 

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