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Rockly soil and landscape

Soil profile: A soil profile of the shallow Rockly soils. (Soil Survey of Spokane County, Washington; by Scott H. Bare, Natural Resources Conservation Service)

 

Landscape: Typical area of Alecanyon-Rockly complex, 0 to 15 percent slopes. The Rockly soil is in foreground under rangeland ecological site R009XY301WA. Stiff sagebrush (Artemisia rigida) is the dominant shrub on the Rockly soil. The Alecanyon soil is between convex areas of Rockly soils and supports rangeland ecological site R009XY202WA.

 

Landscape--Mountains, hills, plateaus, canyonlands

Landform--mountain slopes, hillslopes, ridges, structural benches, canyons

Slope--0 to 120 percent

Parent material--residuum and colluvium derived from basalt with an influence of loess and volcanic ash

Mean annual precipitation--about 460 mm

Mean annual air temperature--about 9 degrees C

Depth class--shallow, very shallow

Drainage class--well drained

Soil moisture regime--xeric

Soil temperature regime--mesic

Soil moisture subclass--typic

 

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, mesic Lithic Haploxerolls

 

Soil moisture--usually moist, but dry 60 to 80 consecutive days in all parts between depths of 10 and 30 cm or to a lithic contact

Mean annual soil temperature at lithic contact--8 to 12 degrees C

Depth to bedrock--10 to 30 cm

Thickness of mollic epipedon--10 to 30 cm

Reaction--6.1 to 7.3

Hue--10YR to 5YR

Particle-size control section--loam, silt loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam; about 10 to 30 percent clay; 35 to 75 percent rock fragments consisting of gravel, cobbles, or stones

Percentage of surface covered with stones or cobbles--0 to 15 percent

Faint clay films--lining pores in thin layer above bedrock in some pedons

 

USE AND VEGETATION:

Use--livestock grazing, wildlife habitat, water supply

Native vegetation--mainly stiff sagebrush, lomatium, bluebunch wheatgrass, and Sandberg bluegrass.

 

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: North-central Oregon, eastern and central Washington, and west-central Idaho; MLRAs 8, 9, 10, and 43C; large extent

 

For additional information about the survey area, visit:

www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/washington/spo...

 

For a detailed soil description, visit:

soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/R/ROCKLY.html

 

For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:

casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#rockly

 

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Uploaded on March 19, 2011
Taken in January 2000