Foothills Fescue Range Plant Community Guide - Sustainable ...

Variants
Variants of Soil Series are indicated as modifiers following the Soil Series code. Three
examples are listed below. For a complete list of the 48 possible variants, see ASIC 2001.
co: Coarse-textured variation of the noted soil series. Textural class is at least one
group coarser (Fig. 4). E.g., BZR is medium-textured, so a BZRco indicates at
least a moderately-coarse-textured variation.
gl: Gleyed phase of the noted soil series. Soils are generally imperfectly drained,
indicative of temporary wetlands. May also be indicative of a high watertable,
which can promote subirrigation.
st: Stony phase used to indicate surface stoniness class of S3 or greater. Selected
classes are defined in Table 15.
Table 15. Selected stoniness classes.
Stoniness
Class
Description % of Land Surface
Covered By ZStones or
Boulders
S3 very stony 3 – 15
S4 excessively stony 15 – 50
S5 exceedingly stony >50
Z Stones are 25 to 60 cm in diameter; boulders are >60 cm in diameter.
Undifferentiated Soil Models
Some soil landscapes are complex and may contain a wide variety of soil series. For these
conditions undifferentiated soil models are used. Undifferentiated soil models begin with
the letter Z, and reflect a broad grouping of particular soils that can include a soil order
(E.g., ZSZ for Solonetzic), a soil subgroup (E.g., Gleyed is a component of ZGW), or a
broad soil textural group (E.g., ZCO for coarse soils, Fig. 1). Nine undifferentiated soil
models were used in AGRASID (Table 16).
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