Official Series Description


Lab Data Summary

Aggregate lab data for the MARCUS soil series. This aggregation is based on all pedons with a current taxon name of MARCUS, 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 MARCUS were used in the calculation. Source: KSSL snapshot . Methods used to assemble the KSSL snapshot used by SoilWeb / SDE

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Pedons used in the lab summary:

MLRALab IDPedon IDTaxonnameCINSSL / NASIS ReportsLink To SoilWeb GMap
107A40A1423S1959IA041003Marcus6Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties43.0583344,-95.2883301

Water Balance

Monthly water balance estimated using a leaky-bucket style model for the MARCUS 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.

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Sibling Summary

Siblings are those soil series that occur together in map units, in this case with the MARCUS series. Sketches are arranged according to their subgroup-level taxonomic structure. Source: SSURGO snapshot , parsed OSD records and snapshot of SC database .

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

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Geomorphic description summaries for the MARCUS 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 .

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

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

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Competing Series

Soil series competing with MARCUS share the same family level classification in Soil Taxonomy. Source: parsed OSD records and snapshot of the SC database .

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

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Geomorphic description summaries for the MARCUS 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 .

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

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Click the image to view it full size.

Soil series sharing subgroup-level classification with MARCUS, 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 .

Block Diagrams

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

  1. IA-2011-06-01-27 | Osceola County - 1988

    Typical pattern of soils and parent material in the Sac-Primghar association (Soil Survey of Osceola County, Iowa; 1988).

Map Units

Map units containing MARCUS 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
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes9283254033332xbkbia02119731:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes92234714039712xbkbia03519871:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes925644072312xbkbia09319891:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes92112404091602xbkbia11919731:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes92448194101042xbkbia14119771:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes92103494101822xbkbia14319851:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes9260804108422xbkbia16119751:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes92129674112722xbkbia16719871:15840
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopesP21A1356300662xbkbmn10520041:12000
Marcus silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slopesP21A165044326922xbkbmn13320021:12000

Map of Series Extent

Approximate geographic distribution of the MARCUS 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 .