Soil Data Explorer - OWSEL

Official Series Description

Lab Data Summary

Aggregate lab data for the OWSEL soil series. This aggregation is based on all pedons with a current taxon name of OWSEL, 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 OWSEL were used in the calculation. Source: KSSL snapshot (updated 2020-03-18). Methods used to assemble the KSSL snapshot used by SoilWeb / SDE

There are insufficient data to create the lab data summary figure.

Water Balance

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

There are insufficient data to create the annual climate figure.

Geomorphic description summaries for the OWSEL 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 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 OWSEL, 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

No block diagrams are available.

Map Units

Map units containing OWSEL 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
Owsel-Coonskin-Orovada complex, 1 to 5 percent slopes	118	48403	485923	j9my	id675	1992	1:24000
Arbidge-Owsel-Gariper complex, 1 to 15 percent slopes	9	40598	486292	jb0v	id675	1992	1:24000
Troughs-Owsel complex, 1 to 10 percent slopes	181	25453	486064	j9sh	id675	1992	1:24000
Owsel-Purdam complex, 1 to 12 percent slopes	113	56644	2519469	2qxb	id685	2012	1:24000
Purdam-Sebree-Owsel complex, 0 to 8 percent slopes	122	35026	2519479	2qxn	id685	2012	1:24000
Shano-Owsel complex, 0 to 12 percent slopes	144	30621	2519503	2qyf	id685	2012	1:24000
Owsel silt loam, 1 to 4 percent slopes	19	406	80076	2pb3	id702	1999	1:24000
Owsel silt loam, 4 to 8 percent slopes	77	7593	80285	2pjv	id704	1992	1:24000
Owsel silt loam, 2 to 4 percent slopes	76	3001	80284	2pjt	id704	1992	1:24000
Owsel silt loam, 12 to 20 percent slopes	79	1736	80287	2pjx	id704	1992	1:24000
Owsel silt loam, 8 to 12 percent slopes	78	1088	80286	2pjw	id704	1992	1:24000
Owsel silt loam, 0 to 2 percent slopes	75	198	80283	2pjs	id704	1992	1:24000
Elijah-Frohman-Owsel complex, 5 to 40 percent slopes	2944	21770	2425886	2mfbd	or645		1:24000
Owsel very fine sandy loam, 2 to 15 percent slopes	3818	11327	2425763	2mf6f	or645		1:24000
Drewsey-Owsel complex, 8 to 35 percent north slopes	3801	3544	2425620	2mf1t	or645		1:24000

Map of Series Extent

Approximate geographic distribution of the OWSEL 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).