Aggregate lab data for the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS soil series. This aggregation is based on all pedons with a current taxon name of VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS, 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 VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS were used in the calculation. Source: KSSL snapshot . Methods used to assemble the KSSL snapshot used by SoilWeb / SDE
Monthly water balance estimated using a leaky-bucket style model for the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS 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.
Siblings are those soil series that occur together in map units, in this case with the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS series. Sketches are arranged according to their subgroup-level taxonomic structure. Source: SSURGO snapshot , parsed OSD records and snapshot of SC database .
Select annual climate data summaries for the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS series and siblings. Series are sorted according to hierarchical clustering of median values. Source: SSURGO map unit geometry and 1981-2010, 800m PRISM data .
Geomorphic description summaries for the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS 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 .
Soil series competing with VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS share the same family level classification in Soil Taxonomy. Source: parsed OSD records and snapshot of the SC database .
Select annual climate data summaries for the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS series and competing. Series are sorted according to hierarchical clustering of median values. Source: SSURGO map unit geometry and 1981-2010, 800m PRISM data .
Geomorphic description summaries for the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS 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 .
Click a link below to display the diagram. Note that these diagrams may be from multiple survey areas.
Block diagram 1. – This diagram shows a north flowing glacial valley in the Manzanita Creek drainage. Multiple glacial episodes and ice levels shaped this valley, leaving traces of features such as glacial-valley walls and floors, scoured lava flows, moraines and outwash plains. The more recent glaciations were generally less extensive and cut into and deposited over preexisting glacial features. Moraines and outwash plains formed as the gradient flattened beyond the confining bedrock of Lassen Peak and Loomis Peak. The active colluvial nature of Lassen Peak has shed many of the glacial features that were formed on it. Chaos Crags erupted and was emplaced after glaciations, obliterating any glacial features that existed there prior to the eruption. Thick deposits of tephra were deposited around the vent of dome A of Chaos Crags and covered a large area of the northern part of the park with thinner deposits. A rockfall avalanche formed at the base of the unstable volcanic dome of Chaos Crags. Debris flows from eruptions of Lassen Peak flowed off of the peak and were deposited in flat valley bottoms (Soil Survey of Lassen Volcanic National Park, California; 2010).
Block diagram 3. – This diagram shows a north flowing glacial valley in the Grassy Creek drainage, and the surrounding glacially scoured uplands. Unconfined glaciers scoured the lava flows on the uplands, and deposited till in the valley below as they merged into partially confined north flowing glaciers. The glaciers did not completely cover Red Cinder, Ash Butte and Mount Hoffman. Red Cinder Cone and Ash Butte retained much of their cinder cone shape and composition, and Mount Hoffman formed a nunatak composed of remnants of the Dittmar Volcanic Center. Outwash was deposited in the lower flatter reach of the valley. The lake terraces are likely remnants of the fluctuations of a glacial lake. The lava flows from Cinder Cone obstructed the drainage to form Snag Lake (Soil Survey of Lassen Volcanic National Park, California; 2010).
Map units containing VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS as a major component. Limited to 250 records.
Approximate geographic distribution of the VITRANDIC XERORTHENTS 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 .
