Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Ecological site F134XY106MS
Southern Rolling Plains Thin Loess Upland - PROVISIONAL
Accessed: 10/08/2024
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): 134X–Southern Mississippi Valley Loess
MLRA 134, Southern Mississippi Valley Loess, is in Mississippi (39 percent), Tennessee (23 percent), Louisiana (15 percent), Arkansas (11 percent), Kentucky (9 percent), Missouri (2 percent), and Illinois (1 percent). It makes up about 26,520 square miles (68,715 square kilometers). The northern part of the area includes Paducah and Murray, Kentucky; Paragould, Jonesboro, and Forrest City, Arkansas; and Memphis, Dyersburg, Bartlett, and Germantown, Tennessee. The southern part includes Yazoo City, Clinton, and Jackson, Mississippi, and Baton Rouge, Opelousas, Lafayette, and New Iberia, Louisiana. This portion is the farthest southeast part of the MLRA in Louisiana. It is in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains Section of the EPA Ecoregions in sub-section 74c, Southern rolling Plains. The dissected plains in this MLRA have a loess mantle that is thick at the valley wall and thins rapidly as distance from the valley wall increases. Although less dissected than the Bluff Hills (74a), the region has more irregular and dissected topography than adjacent 74b to the north in Mississippi. The historic forests contained shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, and upland oaks and hickories. Pine is naturally more prevalent here than in 74a and 74b. Land cover now is mostly mixed pine-hardwood forest, pine plantations, pasture, and cropland. The eastern boundary of this region is broad, with a gradual transition to the southern Coastal Plains.
Classification relationships
Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) and Land Resource Unit (LRU) (USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2006)
EPA Level IV Ecoregion
The Natural Communities of Louisiana - (Louisiana Natural Heritage Program - Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries)
Ecological site concept
Well drained soils on upland sites that are productive and have a slope range from 0 to 20 percent. This site is Transitional from Loess to Coastal Plains, having Loess over Coastal Plain Sediments with no root restricting layers. The underlying Coastal Plain sediments will help drive the soil chemistry being more acid and favoring a historic Mixed Pine Hardwood forest as opposed to the deep loess. These sites are found in level IV EPA Ecoregions, 74a, Bluff Hills & 74c, Southern Rolling Plains of the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains, within the Southern Mississippi Valley Loess Major Land Resource Area.
Similar sites
F134XY105MS |
Southern Rolling Plains Loess Fragipan Upland - PROVISIONAL Southern Rolling Plains Loess Fragipan Upland will be in a similar site position, however the root restriction will be due to Fragic properties in the soil. |
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F134XY107MS |
Southern Deep Loess Summit - PROVISIONAL Southern Deep Loess Summit will be in a similar site position, however it will have a thicker loess surface of the soil. |
Table 1. Dominant plant species
Tree |
Not specified |
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Shrub |
Not specified |
Herbaceous |
Not specified |
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