Ecological site PX133A00X010

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): 133A–Southern Coastal Plain

This MLRA (shown in orange in the figure above) is in Alabama (26 percent), Mississippi (24 percent), Georgia (21 percent), Florida (8 percent), North Carolina (7 percent), Virginia (5 percent), South Carolina (4 percent), Tennessee (4 percent), and Louisiana (1 percent). It makes up about 106,485 square miles (275,930 square kilometers). It is the largest MLRA in the U.S. The city of Alexandria, Virginia, is at the northernmost tip of the area. The MLRA also includes Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Petersburg, Virginia; Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Fayetteville, and Lumberton, North Carolina; Florence, Sumter, and Orangeburg, South Carolina; Albany and Tifton, Georgia; Tallahassee, Florida; Tuskegee, Eufaula, Selma, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Savannah, Tennessee; Corinth, Starkville, Grenada, Meridian, Hattiesburg, and McComb, Mississippi; and Bogalusa, Louisiana. Interstates 95, 64, 85, 40, 20, 20/59, 26, 16, 75, 10, 65, 59, and 55 cross this area from north to south. This area extends from Virginia to Louisiana and Mississippi, but it is almost entirely within three sections of the Coastal Plain Province of the Atlantic Plain. The northern part is in the Embayed Section, the middle part is in the Sea Island Section, and the southern part is in the East Gulf Coastal Plain Section. This MLRA is strongly dissected into nearly level and gently undulating valleys and gently sloping to steep uplands. Stream valleys generally are narrow in their upper reaches but become broad and have widely meandering stream channels as they approach the coast. Elevation ranges from 80 to 655 feet (25 to 200 meters), increasing gradually from the lower Coastal Plain northward. Local relief is mainly 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters), but it is 80 to 165 feet (25 to 50 meters) in some of the more deeply dissected areas.

Classification relationships

ATTENTION: This ecological site meets the requirements for PROVISIONAL. A provisional ecological site is established after ecological site concepts are developed and an initial state-and-transition model is drafted. A provisional ecological site typically will include literature reviews, land use history information, legacy data, and must include some soils data, ocular estimates for canopy and/or species composition by weight, and some line-point intercept information. A provisional ecological site provides the conceptual framework of soil-site correlation for the development of the ESD. For more information about this ecological site, please contact your local NRCS office.

Ecological site concept

This system is comprised of dry hardwood forests largely dominated by oaks, ranging from sandy glacial and outwash deposits of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York, south to the Coastal Plain portions of Maryland and Virginia south to about the James River. In the northern half of the range, conditions can grade to dry-mesic, reflected in the local abundance of Fagus grandifolia. These forests occur on acidic, sandy to gravelly soils with a thick duff layer, often with an ericaceous shrub layer. This system grades into other hardwood types of the northeastern U.S. as one moves inland. In Delaware and New York these coastal forests are apparently distinct (fauna, flora and substrate are distinct) from more inland forests. The southern part of this type's range overlaps with Atlantic Coastal Plain Mesic Hardwood Forest (CES203.242); where they overlap, they are separated based on moisture regime, with the drier forests (often with an ericaceous shrub layer) going to this type. Descriptions of Ecological Systems for
Modeling of LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings
Ecological Systems
06 October 2007
Descriptions provided to TNC and LANDFIRE by NatureServe

Table 1. Dominant plant species

Tree	(1) Fagus grandifolia (2) Quercus rubra
Shrub	(1) Quercus alba (2) Kalmia latifolia
Herbaceous	Not specified

Legacy ID

F133AY010NC

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Physiographic features

This area extends from Virginia to Louisiana and Mississippi, but it is almost entirely within three sections of the Coastal Plain Province of the Atlantic Plain. The northern part is in the Embayed Section, the middle part is in the Sea Island Section, and the southern part is in the East Gulf Coastal Plain Section. This MLRA is strongly dissected into nearly level and gently undulating valleys and gently sloping to steep uplands. Stream valleys generally are narrow in their upper reaches but become broad and have widely meandering stream channels as they approach the coast. Elevation ranges from 80 to 655 feet (25 to 200 meters), increasing gradually from the lower Coastal Plain northward. Local relief is mainly 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters), but it is 80 to 165 feet (25 to 50 meters) in some of the more deeply dissected areas.

Table 2. Representative physiographic features

Landforms	(1) Ridge

Soil features

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: These nearly level to steep soils are in erosional upalnds of the Southern Coastal Plain. Slopes range
from 1 to 17 percent. These soils formed in marine or stream deposits of silty clay and clay. The climate is warm and humid.
The mean annual temperature is 68 degrees F., and average annual precipitation is 61 inches near the type location.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Angie, Boswell, Shubuta, and Wilcox soils of the competing series and the Cahaba, Cowarts, Izagora, Lucy, Rumford, Ruston, and Wicksburg soils. Moderately well drained Angie and Boswell soils, well drained
Shubuta soils, and somewhat poorly drained Wilcox soils are in similar positions as the Susquehanna soils. Well drained Cahaba soils and moderately well drained Izagora soils, which are on terraces, are in a fine-loamy family. Well drained Cowarts,
Ruston, and Wicksburg soils are on broader, smoother slopes. In addition, Cowarts and Ruston soils are in a fine-loamy family and Wicksburg soils have kaolinitic mineralogy. Well drained Lucy
soils and somewhat excessively drained Rumford soils, which
mainly are in slightly higher positions on hillslopes, are in a loamy, siliceous family.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat poorly drained; very slow permeability; moderate to very rapid runoff. These soils are wet during periods of high rainfall, but they do not have a free
water table.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Susquehanna soils are used for woodland. Some areas are used for pasture. Principal vegetation
of wooded areas is mixed hardwood and pine forests.

Rangeland health reference sheet

Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health is a qualitative assessment protocol used to determine ecosystem condition based on benchmark characteristics described in the Reference Sheet. A suite of 17 (or more) indicators are typically considered in an assessment. The ecological site(s) representative of an assessment location must be known prior to applying the protocol and must be verified based on soils and climate. Current plant community cannot be used to identify the ecological site.

Author(s)/participant(s)
Contact for lead author
Date
Approved by
Approval date
Composition (Indicators 10 and 12) based on	Annual Production

Indicators

Number and extent of rills:
Presence of water flow patterns:
Number and height of erosional pedestals or terracettes:
Bare ground from Ecological Site Description or other studies (rock, litter, lichen, moss, plant canopy are not bare ground):
Number of gullies and erosion associated with gullies:
Extent of wind scoured, blowouts and/or depositional areas:
Amount of litter movement (describe size and distance expected to travel):
Soil surface (top few mm) resistance to erosion (stability values are averages - most sites will show a range of values):
Soil surface structure and SOM content (include type of structure and A-horizon color and thickness):
Effect of community phase composition (relative proportion of different functional groups) and spatial distribution on infiltration and runoff:
Presence and thickness of compaction layer (usually none; describe soil profile features which may be mistaken for compaction on this site):
Functional/Structural Groups (list in order of descending dominance by above-ground annual-production or live foliar cover using symbols: >>, >, = to indicate much greater than, greater than, and equal to):

Dominant:

Sub-dominant:

Other:

Additional:
Amount of plant mortality and decadence (include which functional groups are expected to show mortality or decadence):
Average percent litter cover (%) and depth ( in):
Expected annual annual-production (this is TOTAL above-ground annual-production, not just forage annual-production):
Potential invasive (including noxious) species (native and non-native). List species which BOTH characterize degraded states and have the potential to become a dominant or co-dominant species on the ecological site if their future establishment and growth is not actively controlled by management interventions. Species that become dominant for only one to several years (e.g., short-term response to drought or wildfire) are not invasive plants. Note that unlike other indicators, we are describing what is NOT expected in the reference state for the ecological site:
Perennial plant reproductive capability:

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