LOCATION BOOTHBAY ME+VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, superactive, frigid Aquic Dystric Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Boothbay silt loam, on a 5 percent southeast-facing convex slope in a hayfield. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 5 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) silt loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine and common medium roots; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
Bw1--5 to 10 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure parting to weak fine granular; friable; common fine and few medium roots; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2--10 to 16 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure parting to weak very fine and fine granular; friable; few fine roots; few fine and medium pores; common fine prominent olive gray (5Y 5/2) iron depletions and few medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; moderately acid; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 5 to 19 inches).
BC--16 to 22 inches; olive (5Y 4/3) silt loam, pale olive (5Y 6/3) faces of peds; weak thin to platy structure parting to weak very fine and fine subangular blocky; friable; few fine roots; few fine pores; many fine faint olive gray (5Y 5/2) iron depletions; few fine prominent light olive brown (2.5Y 5/6) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation; moderately acid; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 13 inches thick)
C1--22 to 44 inches; olive (5Y 5/3) silty clay loam, light olive gray (5Y 6/2) faces of prisms; strong very coarse prisms parting to weak fine and medium angular blocks; firm; few fine roots along faces of prisms; few fine pores; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) oxide coatings on 15 percent of faces of blocks within prisms; many fine and medium faint light olive gray (5Y 6/2) iron depletions; few fine prominent light olive brown (2.5Y 5/6) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation; slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (5 to 40 inches thick)
C2--44 to 65 inches; olive (5Y 5/3) silty clay loam, light olive gray (5Y 6/2) faces of prisms; strong very coarse prisms parting to moderate fine and medium angular blocks; firm; oxide coatings on 60 percent of faces of blocks within prisms that have dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) centers grading to reddish brown (5YR 4/4); few fine faint light olive gray (5Y 6/2) iron depletions and few fine prominent light olive brown (2.5Y 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; slightly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Waldo County, Maine; Town of Winterport; 100 feet north of Maine Route 139, 0.75 mile southwest of the intersection of Maine Route 139 and Goshen Road; USGS Snow Mtn topographic quadrangle; lat. 44 degrees 38 minutes 08 seconds N. and long. 68 degrees 56 minutes 09 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges dominantly from 20 to 36 inches, with a few pedons ranging to 18 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Rock fragment content throughout the soil is less than 5 percent by volume. Stones cover from 0 to 3 percent of the surface in some areas. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to neutral in the solum and moderately acid to neutral in the substratum.
The Ap horizon, or A horizon where present, has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam or very fine sandy loam. It has weak or moderate, very fine to medium granular or weak fine subangular blocky structure.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 6, with chroma of 2 being inherited. It is primarily silt loam or silty clay loam, but can include one or more thin layers of very fine sandy loam or silty clay. It has weak to strong, medium to very coarse prismatic, weak or moderate, thin to thick platy, weak or moderate, very fine to medium subangular blocky, or weak or moderate, very fine to coarse granular structure. Consistence is friable or firm.
The BC horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 6. It is primarily silt loam or silt clay loam, but can include one or more thin layers of very fine sandy loam or silty clay. It has weak to strong, medium to very coarse prismatic, weak or moderate, thin to platy or weak or moderate, very fine to medium subangular blocky structure. Consistence is friable or firm.
The C horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. Some pedons have hue of 10YR in the upper part. It is silt loam or silty clay loam, but thin layers of silty clay, very fine sandy loam, or loamy very fine sand are in some pedons. The C horizon has weak to moderate, fine to medium angular blocks, thick or very thick plates, or moderate or strong coarse or very coarse prisms, all of which are considered inherited, or the horizon is massive. Consistence is firm or very firm, but some subhorizons range to friable.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in the same family. Buxton, Elmwood, Nicholville and Salmon are similar soils in related families. Buxton soils have more than 35 percent clay in the particle-size control section. Elmwood soils have a coarse-loamy over clayey particle-size control section. Nicholville and Salmon soils have spodic horizons and have coarse-silty particle-size control sections.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Boothbay soils are on lake plains or marine plains. Slope ranges from 3 to 45 percent. The soils formed in glaciolacustrine or glaciomarine deposits of Wisconsin age. The climate is humid and cool temperate. Mean annual temperature ranges from 42 to 46 degrees F and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 36 to 48 inches. The frost-free season ranges from 90 to 160 days. Elevation ranges from 5 to 1500 feet above mean sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Biddeford, Elmwood, Lyman, Pushaw, Swanville, and Tunbridge soils. Biddeford soils are very poorly drained and are in depressions. Elmwood soils are in similar landscape positions and have a coarse-loamy over clayey particle-size control section. Lyman soils are less than 20 inches to bedrock, and are in higher landscape positions. Pushaw soils are somewhat poorly drained, and are in lower landscape positions. Swanville soils are poorly drained and in lower positions. The well drained Tunbridge soils formed in moderately deep glacial till and are in higher positions on the landscape.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained and somewhat poorly drained. Permeability is moderate in the surface horizon and moderately slow or slow in the underlying material.
USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are used mainly for hay and pasture. Some areas are used for silage corn or other row crops. The remaining areas are forested and the common tree species are eastern white pine, balsam fir, white spruce, red spruce, and a mixture of northern hardwoods.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Maine and Vermont. (MLRA's 143 and 144B). The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Waldo County, Maine, 1979.
REMARKS: Drainage class is narrowed by eliminating somewhat poorly drained with this revision. The Pushaw series was established to recognize the somewhat poorly drained member of the catena.
Previous remarks, 2000 1. The superactive CEC class was added to the family classification in 1998 revision, to update the classification to the Keys to Soil Taxonomy, seventh edition, 1996. 2. Some soils formerly mapped as Belgrade and Buxton will be included with the Boothbay series. 3. Some pedons have been described with bisequum profiles. 4. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 5 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 5 to 16 inches (Bw horizon).
c. Aquic feature - redox depletions with a chroma of 2 or less within 24 inches of the soil surface.
d. Dystric Eutrochrepts feature - do not have carbonates within a depth of 40 inches and base saturation is greater than 60 percent or more in some subhorizon between depths of 10 and 30 inches below the mineral soil surface.
ADDITIONAL DATA: Source of data used in establishing the taxonomic classification and range in characteristics is Maine Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletins 94 and 29, pp. 36 to 41; unpublished data, Maine Agricultural Experiment Station; unpublished data, Maine Department of Transportation; State of Vermont, Department of Highways; and NRCS National Soil Survey Laboratory.
Soil Interpretation Record numbers for the Boothbay series are: Boothbay, ME0074; and Boothbay, stony, ME0052.