LOCATION SCIO NY MA ME NH PA RIEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-silty, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Scio silt loam, on a 2 percent slope in a pasture. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap-- 0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; moderate fine granular structure; friable; many fine roots; moderately acid; limed; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 13 inches thick.)
Bw1-- 9 to 19 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common medium and fine pores; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 19 to 31 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; common medium and fine pores; common medium distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation and light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) areas of iron depletion in the matrix; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 15 to 29 inches.)
C-- 31 to 40 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silt loam; very weak thick plate like divisions; friable; common medium and fine pores; many medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation and distinct gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletion in the matrix; 3 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (8 to 40 inches thick.)
2Cg-- 40 to 72 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) very gravelly loamy sand; single grain; loose; common medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation in the matrix; 35 percent gravel; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Wyoming County, New York; town of Pike, 2 miles north of village of Pike on west side of Campbell Road, 0.7 mile north of junction of Campbell Road and Safford Road. USGS Pike, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 35 minutes, 17 seconds N. and Longitude 78 degrees, 09 minutes, 26 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 20 to 50 inches. Depth to material contrasting with solum texture is 40 inches or more. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Depth to free carbonates is greater than 80 inches. Rock fragments, mainly gravel and cobbles, range from 0 to 5 percent above 40 inches and from 0 to 60 percent below 40 inches. Stones cover 0 to 10 percent of the surface in some areas.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. It is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, or fine sandy loam. Structure is weak or moderate fine or medium granular, sometimes parting from blocky. Consistence is friable or very friable. Undisturbed pedons have an A horizon with colors similar to the Ap but also include value of 2. They are 2 to 5 inches thick. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to strongly acid, unless limed.
The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. Redox depletions and accumulations are within a depth of 24 inches. It is silt loam or very fine sandy loam. Structure is weak or moderate, thin to thick platy, or fine to coarse prismatic, or subangular blocky. Consistence is friable or very friable. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to strongly acid to a depth of 30 inches and very strongly to moderately acid below 30 inches.
The BC horizon, when present, has colors and textures similar to the B horizon. Structure is weak or moderate, thin to thick platy, or fine to coarse prismatic, or subangular blocky. Consistence is friable or very friable. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to strongly acid within a depth of 30 inches and very strongly to moderately acid below 30 inches.
The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. Texture is silt loam to fine sandy loam. It may contain strata of gravel and sand. It is massive or single grain, and may have plate-like divisions. Consistence is loose to firm. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to slightly alkaline.
The 2C horizon, if present, has hue of 7.5YR to 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. It is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, or loamy very fine sand in the fine earth fraction. In addition, below a depth of 40 inches it can range from fine sandy loam to very gravelly sand. The material is massive or single grain. Consistence is loose or friable. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to slightly alkaline.
COMPETING SERIES: The Dartmouth series is the only other series in the same family. Dartmouth soils have slow or moderately slow permeability within a depth of 40 inches.
The Belgrade, Nicholville, Raynham, Unadilla, Wallington, and Williamson series are in related families. Belgrade soils have some subhorizon that is moderately acid to neutral within a depth of 30 inches. Nicholville soils have a spodic horizon. Raynham soils have dominant chroma of 2 in the matrix at a depth of less than 20 inches. Unadilla soils do not have redox depletions with chroma of 2 in the solum. Wallington and Williamson soils have fragipans.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Scio soils are most commonly on terraces or old alluvial fans, but are also on lacustrine mantled uplands. The solum is formed entirely in aeolian, lacustrine, or alluvial sediments which may extend to a depth of many feet or may be underlain by loamy, sandy, or gravelly material at depths greater than 40 inches. Slope ranges from 0 to 25 percent. Mean annual temperature ranges from 46 to 50 degrees F.; mean annual precipitation ranges from 28 to 50 inches; and mean annual frost-free days ranges from 120 to 180 days. Elevation ranges from 100 to 1500 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The Scio series is in a drainage sequence with the well drained Unadilla soils, the poorly drained Raynham soils, and the very poorly drained Birdsall soils. Pope, Tioga, and Hadley soils, and their wetter associated soils are on adjacent floodplains. Alton, Chenango, Copake, and Howard soils, and their wetter associated soils are on adjacent gravelly outwash terraces, kames, and outwash plains.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is very low to high. Permeability is moderate to a depth of 40 inches, and ranges from rapid to slow below 40 inches.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the soil has been cleared and is used for growing hay, corn, vegetables, fruit, and small grain. Native vegetation is northern red oak, white ash, sugar maple, black cherry, eastern hemlock, and eastern white
pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. MLRAs 100, 101, 139, 140, 143, 144A, 144B, 145 and 149B. The series is moderately extensive.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Allegany County, New York, 1946.
REMARKS: Scio soils have been mapped in frigid areas in the past, but have a mesic temperature regime. The series will probably not be used in MLRAs 143 and 144B when older soil surveys in these MLRAs are updated.
The separation between Scio and Dartmouth is dubious. When the series are upgraded to saturated hydraulic conductivity this separation will disappear. Review of the two series in a maintenance is needed.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 9 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 9 to 31 inches (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons).
c. Dystrudepts Great Group - base saturation is less than 60 percent in the zone from 10 to 30 inches (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons) and does not have carbonates in the soil.
d. Aquic subgroup - Redox depletions with chroma of 2 or less are within 24 inches of the mineral soil surface (Bw2 horizon).