Official Series Description


Lab Data Summary

Aggregate lab data for the MEISS soil series. This aggregation is based on all pedons with a current taxon name of MEISS, 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 MEISS 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
22A00P03091999NV031021Meiss6Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties39.2845861,-119.9887222
22A00P0300S99CA017024Meiss6Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties38.7360944,-120.0342139
22A00P0356S99CA061010Meiss6Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties39.0831111,-120.2354639

Water Balance

Monthly water balance estimated using a leaky-bucket style model for the MEISS 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 MEISS 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 MEISS 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 MEISS 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 terrace figure.

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

Competing Series

Soil series competing with MEISS 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 MEISS 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 MEISS 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 hills figure.

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

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

Soil series sharing subgroup-level classification with MEISS, 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. CA-2010-08-30-01 | Tahoe Basin Area, California and Nevada - 2007

    Representative diagram of the Meiss Meadow area (not to scale). The Sky-Callat general soil map unit is in this area (Soil Survey of the Tahoe Basin Area, California and Nevada; 2007).

Map Units

Map units containing MEISS 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
Lithnip-Meiss-Hawkinspeak association, 30 to 75 percent slopes9131236116520311sg2bca69320061:24000
Waca-Meiss complex, 30 to 50 percent slopesWDF25790464834hlpnca71919821:24000
Waca-Meiss complex, 2 to 30 percent slopesWDE16695464833hlpmca71919821:24000
Meiss-Waca complex, 30 to 50 percent slopesMKF14820464749hllxca71919821:24000
Waca-Meiss-Cryumbrepts, wet complex, 30 to 50 percent slopesWEF13499464836hlpqca71919821:24000
Meiss-Waca-Cryumbrepts, wet complex, 30 to 75 percent slopesMLG11598464752hlm0ca71919821:24000
Waca-Meiss-Cryumbrepts, wet complex, 2 to 30 percent slopesWEE9484464835hlppca71919821:24000
Meiss-Rock outcrop complex, 30 to 75 percent slopes, severely er odedMIG39347464747hllvca71919821:24000
Meiss-Gullied land-Rock outcrop complex, 30 to 75 percent slopesMHG7905464744hllrca71919821:24000
Meiss-Rock outcrop complex, 30 to 75 percent slopesMIG6604464746hlltca71919821:24000
Meiss-Waca-Rock outcrop complex, 30 to 50 percent slopes, severe ly erodedMKF36299464750hllyca71919821:24000
Meiss-Waca complex, 2 to 30 percent slopesMKE6016464748hllwca71919821:24000
Meiss-Waca-Cryumbrepts, wet complex, 2 to 30 percent slopesMLE4544464751hllzca71919821:24000
Meiss-Rock outcrop complex, 2 to 30 percent slopesMIE2102464745hllsca71919821:24000
Lithnip-Meiss-Hawkinspeak association, 30 to 75 percent slopes103ty278015970051qlt9ca72419851:24000
Lithnip-Meiss-Hawkinspeak association103168515417821nrbxca72920061:24000
Meiss-Sibelia-Rock outcrop association14506230474209hxg2nv62819801:24000

Map of Series Extent

Approximate geographic distribution of the MEISS 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 .