Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Ecological site F130AY004PA
Quartzitic Upland
Last updated: 9/27/2024
Accessed: 11/13/2024
General information
Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.
MLRA notes
Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 130A–Northern Blue Ridge
Major Land Resource Area 130A is in the Northern Section of the Blue Ridge Province of the Appalachian Highlands. The region is characterized by rugged mountains with steep slopes, sharp crests, and narrow valleys. The mountain range forms a narrow band that runs north to south between the Piedmont Upland Section to the east, the Ridge and Valley section to the west, and the Southern Section of the Blue Ridge to the south. Stream dissection is deep and intricate. Major streams and their tributaries flow through gorges and gaps. Elevation ranges from about 820 feet (250 meters) in the lower valleys and on footslopes along the Potomac River just east of Harpers Ferry, where West Virginia joins Maryland and Virginia, to more than 4,200 feet (1,280 meters) along the Appalachian Trail in Bedford County, Virginia. Apple Orchard Mountain, the highest peak, is at an elevation of 4,225 feet (1,288 meters) (USDA 2006).
The backbone of the northern Blue Ridge is an anticline composed of rocks that can be can be divided into geological groupings based on age. In general, the oldest rocks are the furthest east, and become younger towards the west (Fichter and Baedke, 2000; Barnes and Sevon, 2002). The first group are plutonic rocks that formed when liquid molten rock, called magma, solidified deep within the earth’s crust over a billion years ago. Collectively referred to as the Grenville rocks, they make up much of the eastern half of the mountains and are composed of granites, gneisses, and granulites. The second group, characterized by the Catoctin greenstone formation, is slightly younger, and is made up of metabasalts and metarhyolites, types of igneous rocks that have been metamorphosed by heat and pressure. The third group was formed during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago and are represented by the Harpers, Antiedam, Weverton, and Loudoun formations which comprise the Chilhowee group. These rocks are primariliy quartzites, phyllites, and meta-sandstones, and form the western flank of the Blue Ridge.
Preliminary ecological site differentiation is based on these three main age groups and geologies. The variable characteristics of the underlying rocks give rise to different soil physical and chemical properties and exert control on the landscape, slope shape, aspect, and elevation, all of which affect vegetation.
Classification relationships
This ecological site is found in Major Land Resource Area 130a - the Northern Blue Ridge. MLRA 130a is located within Land Resource Region N - the East and Central Farming and Forest Region (USDA 2006), and in United States Forest Service ecoregion M221D - the Central Appalachian Broadleaf Forest-Coniferous Forest-Meadow Province (Bailey 1995). In addition, MLRA 130a falls within area #66 of EPA Ecoregion Level III - the Blue Ridge Mountains (USEPA 2013). The Quartzitic Upland ecological site occurs within 66b, the Northern Sedimentary and Metasedimentary Ridges of EPA Ecoregion IV (Woods et. al. 1996).
Central Appalachian Dry Oak-Pine Forest System - CES202.591
Quercus prinus - (Quercus coccinea, Quercus rubra) / Kalmia latifolia / Vaccinium pallidum Forest Association (CEGL006299)
Northeastern Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest System - CES202.592
Quercus prinus - Quercus rubra / Hamamelis virginiana Forest Association (CEGL006057)
Central Appalachian Pine-Oak Rocky Woodland System - CES202.600
Quercus prinus - Pinus virginiana - (Pinus pungens) / Schizachyrium scoparium - Dichanthelium depauperatum Woodland Association (CEGL008540)
(NatureServe, 2017)
Ecological site concept
The Quartzitic Upland ecological sites are located in the Northern Blue Ridge region of the Appalachian highlands. They occur on geologies of quartzite and sandstone. Typical landscapes are mountain summits, shoulders, and sideslopes. The ecological site can be found on the entire hill or mountain slope, with the shallower areas occupying the convex summits and shoulders. Soils range from extremely to very strongly acid and are well drained to excessively well drained. Surface soil textures are loamy sand and sandy loam. Patches of exposed ridgetops and outcrops are included, as well as small sheltered drainageways and coves which may support plant communities that are different from the predominant forest type. This site is distinguished from other mountainous and hilly areas of the Blue Ridge by its distinctive quartzitic and sandstone geology. Other major ecological sites are underlain by metabasalts which weather into soils with more inherent fertility; and phyllite, metamorphic sandstones, and granitic geologies that are similar but not as dry nor as acidic.
The reference state is a combination of several vegetation communities within the Central Appalachian Dry Oak-Pine Forest, the Northeastern Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest, and the Central Appalachian Pine-Oak Rocky Woodland Forest Systems as defined by NatureServe (NatureServe 2009). The forest is mostly closed-canopy but can include patches of more open woodlands. The coarse, acidic, well drained soils, will host a variable mixture of dry-site oak and pine species. Heath shrubs are common in the understory. Convex, shallow, exposed ridgetop, and rocky areas will tend to have more open canopies as well as grasslands, and will include pine species and herbaceous species that tolerate very dry conditions. A small percentage (6 percent) of this ecological site has some kind of successional, ruderal forest. There is little or no agricultural state currently documented.
Associated sites
F130AY006PA |
Quartzitic Footslopes And Terraces The Quartzitic Footslopes and Terraces ecological site occurs on lower slopes below the Quartzitic Uplands and on nearby concave areas and drainageways. |
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Similar sites
F147XY004PA |
Sandstone Upland The Sandstone Upland provisional ecological site of Major Land Resource Region 147 – Northern Ridge and Valleys is very similar and future field work and analysis may result in combining these ecological sites. |
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Table 1. Dominant plant species
Tree |
(1) Quercus prinus |
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Shrub |
(1) Kalmia latifolia |
Herbaceous |
Not specified |
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