Official Series Description


Lab Data Summary

Aggregate lab data for the WESTMINSTER soil series. This aggregation is based on all pedons with a current taxon name of WESTMINSTER, 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 WESTMINSTER 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
144B40A0455S1962MA011001Westminster3Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties42.5769234,-72.7564621
144B40A0456S1962MA011002Westminster3Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties42.5249786,-72.777298
144B02N1097S2002CT005002Westminster5Primary | Supplementary | Taxonomy | Pedon | Water Retention | Correlation | Andic Soil Properties42.0037222,-73.0648611

Water Balance

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

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Competing Series

Soil series competing with WESTMINSTER 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 WESTMINSTER 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 WESTMINSTER 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 terrace figure.

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

Soil series sharing subgroup-level classification with WESTMINSTER, 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. MA-2010-09-07-02 | Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part - 1995

    Pattern of soils and parent material in the Westminster-Millsite general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part, Massachusetts; 1995).

  2. MA-2010-09-07-06 | Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part - 1995

    Pattern of soils and parent material in the Ashfield-Shelburne general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part, Massachusetts; 1995).

  3. MA-2012-02-02-14 | Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part - December 1995

    Pattern of soils and parent material in the Westminster-Millsite general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part, Massachusetts; December 1995).

  4. MA-2012-02-02-15 | Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part - December 1995

    Pattern of soils and parent material in the Ashfield-Shelburne general soil map unit (Soil Survey of Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Western Part, Massachusetts; December 1995).

Map Units

Map units containing WESTMINSTER 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
Westminster-Millsite-Rock outcrop complex, 15 to 45 percent slopes415E546633958789lsqct60120031:12000
Westminster-Millsite-Rock outcrop complex, 3 to 15 percent slopes415C302133958779lspct60120031:12000
Rock outcrop-Westminster complex, 8 to 45 percent slopes416E83033958799lsrct60120031:12000
Rock outcrop-Westminster complex, 45 to 70 percent slopes416F44733958809lssct60120031:12000
Millsite-Westminster complex, 25 to 50 percent slopes, rocky116F155732788599c5gma01120121:12000
Millsite-Westminster complex, 15 to 25 percent slopes, rocky116D153852788589c5fma01120121:12000
Millsite-Westminster complex, 8 to 15 percent slopes, rocky116C122752788579c5dma01120121:12000
Millsite-Westminster complex, 3 to 8 percent slopes, rocky116B38832788569c5cma01120121:12000
Millsite-Westminster complex, 8 to 15 percent slopes, very rocky120C269525682312qypmma01120121:12000
Westminster, Lyman and Rock outcrop soils, 25 to 90 percent slopes137F243824943432pq39ma01120121:12000
Westminster-Millsite association, 25 to 45 percent slopes, extremely stony921E17190308421w9tma60719751:15840
Westminster-Millsite association, rolling, extremely stony921C2003927767099y3ma60819891:25000
Westminster-Millsite association, steep, extremely stony921E1598127767199y4ma60819891:25000
Millsite-Westminster complex, 3 to 8 percent slopes, very rocky120B64227753199smma60819891:25000
Millsite-Westminster-Rock outcrop complex, 8 to 15 percent slopes121C483791905vl1bma60819891:25000
Westminster-Millsite association, 25 to 35 percent slopes, extremely stony921E70190385821x3sma60919801:15840

Map of Series Extent

Approximate geographic distribution of the WESTMINSTER 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 .