Soil Data Explorer - ELLIS

Official Series Description

Lab Data Summary

Aggregate lab data for the ELLIS soil series. This aggregation is based on all pedons with a current taxon name of ELLIS, and applied along 1-cm thick depth slices. Solid lines are the slice-wise median, bounded on either side by the interval defined by the slice-wise 5th and 95th percentiles. The median is the value that splits the data in half. Five percent of the data are less than the 5th percentile, and five percent of the data are greater than the 95th percentile. Values along the right hand side y-axis describe the proportion of pedon data that contribute to aggregate values at this depth. For example, a value of "90%" at 25cm means that 90% of the pedons correlated to ELLIS were used in the calculation. Source: KSSL snapshot (updated 2020-03-18). Methods used to assemble the KSSL snapshot used by SoilWeb / SDE

Pedons used in the lab summary:

MLRA	Lab ID	Pedon ID	Taxonname	CI	NSSL / NASIS Reports	Link To SoilWeb GMap
86A	40A4613	S1972TX139001	ELLIS	5	Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties	32.3125,-96.9797211
86A	40A4614	S1972TX257001	Ellis	2	Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties	32.3719444,-96.1333313
87A	40A4615	S1972TX349009	ELLIS	5	Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties	32.1955566,-96.2394409

Water Balance

Monthly water balance estimated using a leaky-bucket style model for the ELLIS soil series. Monthly precipitation (PPT) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) have been estimated from the 50th percentile of gridded values (PRISM 1981-2010) overlapping with the extent of SSURGO map units containing each series as a major component. Monthly PET values were estimated using the method of Thornthwaite (1948). These (and other) climatic parameters are calculated with each SSURGO refresh and provided by the fetchOSD function of the soilDB package. Representative water storage values (“AWC” in the figures) were derived from SSURGO by taking the 50th percentile of profile-total water storage (sum[awc_r * horizon thickness]) for each soil series. Note that this representation of “water storage” is based on the average ability of most plants to extract soil water between 15 bar (“permanent wilting point”) and 1/3 bar (“field capacity”) matric potential. Soil moisture state can be roughly interpreted as “dry” when storage is depleted, “moist” when storage is between 0mm and AWC, and “wet” when there is a surplus. Clearly there are a lot of assumptions baked into this kind of monthly water balance. This is still a work in progress.

Sibling Summary

Siblings are those soil series that occur together in map units, in this case with the ELLIS series. Sketches are arranged according to their subgroup-level taxonomic structure. Source: SSURGO snapshot (updated 2024-02-21), parsed OSD records (updated 2023-10-06) and snapshot of SC database (updated 2023-10-02).

Select annual climate data summaries for the ELLIS series and siblings. Series are sorted according to hierarchical clustering of median values. Source: SSURGO map unit geometry and 1981-2010, 800m PRISM data (updated 2023-10-09).

Geomorphic description summaries for the ELLIS series and siblings. Series are sorted according to hierarchical clustering of proportions and relative hydrologic position within an idealized landform (e.g. top to bottom). Most soil series (SSURGO components) are associated with a hillslope position and one or more landform-specific positions: hills, mountain slopes, terraces, and/or flats. Proportions can be interpreted as an aggregate representation of geomorphic membership. The values printed to the left (number of component records) and right (Shannon entropy) of stacked bars can be used to judge the reliability of trends. Small Shannon entropy values suggest relatively consistent geomorphic association, while larger values suggest lack thereof. Source: SSURGO component records (updated 2023-10-04).

There are insufficient data to create the 3D mountains figure.

There are insufficient data to create the 3D flats position figure.

Competing Series

Soil series competing with ELLIS share the same family level classification in Soil Taxonomy. Source: parsed OSD records (updated 2023-10-06) and snapshot of the SC database (updated 2023-10-02).

Select annual climate data summaries for the ELLIS series and competing. Series are sorted according to hierarchical clustering of median values. Source: SSURGO map unit geometry and 1981-2010, 800m PRISM data (updated 2023-10-09).

Geomorphic description summaries for the ELLIS series and competing. Series are sorted according to hierarchical clustering of proportions and relative hydrologic position within an idealized landform (e.g. top to bottom). Proportions can be interpreted as an aggregate representation of geomorphic membership. Most soil series (SSURGO components) are associated with a hillslope position and one or more landform-specific positions: hills, mountain slopes, terraces, and/or flats. The values printed to the left (number of component records) and right (Shannon entropy) of stacked bars can be used to judge the reliability of trends. Shannon entropy values close to 0 represent soil series with relatively consistent geomorphic association, while values close to 1 suggest lack thereof. Source: SSURGO component records (updated 2023-10-04).

There are insufficient data to create the 3D mountains figure.

Soil series sharing subgroup-level classification with ELLIS, arranged according to family differentiae. Hovering over a series name will print full classification and a small sketch from the OSD. Source: snapshot of SC database (updated 2023-10-02).

Block Diagrams

Click a link below to display the diagram. Note that these diagrams may be from multiple survey areas.

1. TX-2012-03-20-41 | Ellis County - August 1964

   Block diagram showing relation of eight soil associations in Ellis County to the underlying materials and surface relief (Soil Survey of Ellis County, TX; 1964).

2. TX-2012-03-20-43 | Ellis County - August 1964

   Representative pattern of soils in soil association 2. Ellis and Houston clays occupy the more sloping areas; Houston Black clay occupies the nearly level areas (Soil Survey of Ellis County, TX; 1964).

3. TX-2012-03-21-42 | Madison County - June 1994

   Pattern of soils and parent material in the Crockett-Benchley-Dimebox general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Madison County, TX; 1994).

Map Units

Map units containing ELLIS as a major component. Limited to 250 records.

Map Unit Name	Symbol	Map Unit Area (ac)	Map Unit Key	National Map Unit Symbol	Soil Survey Area	Publication Date	Map Scale
Ellis clay, 3 to 8 percent slopes, eroded	ElD2	402	364066	d6v2	tx085	1965	1:20000
Ellis and Heiden clays, 5 to 12 percent slopes, severely eroded	EhE3	9806	365295	d83q	tx139	1962	1:20000
Ellis and Heiden clay, 3 to 5 percent slopes, eroded	EhC2	5451	365294	d83p	tx139	1962	1:20000
Heiden and Ellis clays, 1 to 3 percent slopes	HmB	3747	365308	d844	tx139	1962	1:20000
Ellis clay, 5 to 12 percent slopes, eroded	EsD2	6289	365516	d8bv	tx147	1989	1:24000
Ellis clay, 3 to 12 percent slopes	EsE	1097	375388	2zb70	tx161	1986	1:24000
Ellis clay, 3 to 5 percent slopes, eroded	EsC2	10850	369393	ddcx	tx293	1991	1:24000
Ellis clay, 5 to 15 percent slopes, eroded	EsE2	2147	369394	ddcy	tx293	1991	1:24000
Ellis clay, 8 to 20 percent slopes	EsE	1265	370092	df3g	tx309	1992	1:24000
Ellis clay, 5 to 15 percent slopes	EeE	1023	370280	df9j	tx313	1989	1:24000
Ellis clay, 3 to 12 percent slopes	ElE	5609	370928	2zb70	tx349	1968	1:24000
Ellis clay, 3 to 5 percent slopes	EsC	6071	371437	dghv	tx387	1972	1:24000
Ellis clay, 5 to 12 percent slopes, severely eroded	ElD3	1131	576097	mbgs	tx603	1984	1:24000
Ellis clay, 5 to 12 percent slopes	EsD	2544	374389	dkl2	tx610	1973	1:20000
Ellis clay, 5 to 12 percent slopes	EsD	1773	374469	dknn	tx612	1973	1:20000

Map of Series Extent

Approximate geographic distribution of the ELLIS soil series. To learn more about how this distribution was mapped, or to compare this soil series extent to others, use the Series Extent Explorer (SEE) application. Source: generalization of SSURGO geometry (updated 2023-10-04).