Official Series Description


Lab Data Summary

Aggregate lab data for the NIKWASI soil series. This aggregation is based on all pedons with a current taxon name of NIKWASI, 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 NIKWASI 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
130B86P074486NC113024Nikwasi7Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties35.1074982,-83.2297211

Water Balance

Monthly water balance estimated using a leaky-bucket style model for the NIKWASI 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 NIKWASI 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 NIKWASI 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 NIKWASI 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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Competing Series

Soil series competing with NIKWASI 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 NIKWASI series and competing. Series are sorted according to hierarchical clustering of median values. Source: SSURGO map unit geometry and 1981-2010, 800m PRISM data .

There are insufficient data to create the annual climate figure.

Geomorphic description summaries for the NIKWASI 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 .

There are insufficient data to create the 2D hillslope position figure.

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

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

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 NIKWASI, 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. NC-2012-02-07-20 | Jackson County - June 1997

    Relationship of soils and landscape position in the Whiteside-Tuckasegee-Nikwasi general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Jackson County, North Carolina; June 1997).

  2. NC-2012-02-07-21 | Jackson County - June 1997

    Relationship of soils, aspect, and parent material in the Chandler-Fannin-Cashiers general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Jackson County, North Carolina; June 1997).

  3. NC-2012-02-07-22 | Jackson County - June 1997

    Relationship of soils and landscape position in the Braddock-Nikwasi-Dellwood-Cullowhee general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Jackson County, North Carolina; June 1997).

Map Units

Map units containing NIKWASI 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
Alluvial land, wet (nikwasi)Ad5711545889lb1bnc00519671:15840
Codorus complex (Arkaqua)Cx2466545909lb1znc00519671:15840
Nikwasi loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes, frequently floodedNkA1746548076ld9wnc01119971:12000
Saunook-Nikwasi complex, 2 to 15 percent slopesSgC812548102ldbqnc01119971:12000
Nikwasi loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes, frequently floodedNkA18916720531t3x6nc02120061:12000
Nikwasi loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes, frequently floodedNkA2841170113xrknc02320001:24000
Nikwasi fine sandy loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes, frequently floodedNkA247546435lblync04319911:12000
Bandana-Tate-Nikwasi complex, 0 to 15 percent slopes, frequently floodedBaC168924247132md3knc09720111:12000
Nikwasi fine sandy loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes, frequently floodedNkA1947547084lc8wnc09919911:12000
Nikwasi fine sandy loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes, frequently floodedNkA1263545849lb01nc11319901:12000
Bandana-Tate-Nikwasi complex, 0 to 15 percent slopes, frequently floodedBaC103614275191jxg0nc17120051:24000
Nikwasi loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes, frequently floodedNkA2241529733ks75nc18920011:12000
Saunook-Nikwasi complex, 2 to 15 percent slopesSwC1558529750ks7qnc18920011:12000
Nikwasi sandy loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes, occasionally floodedNkA310547852ld2nnc19919971:12000
Cullowhee-Nikwasi complex, 0 to 2 percent slopes, frequently floodedCxA3194546757lbybnc60619911:12000
Nikwasi-Dellwood complex, 0 to 4 percent slopes, frequently flooded35A62014738061lgm4va14120081:24000

Map of Series Extent

Approximate geographic distribution of the NIKWASI 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 .