Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Ecological site F144AY010NH
Sandy High Floodplain
Last updated: 5/01/2019
Accessed: 04/27/2024
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): 144A–New England and Eastern New York Upland, Southern Part
MLRA 144A: New England and Eastern New York Upland, Southern Part
The eastern half of the eastern part of this MLRA is in the Seaboard Lowland Section of the New England Province of the Appalachian Highlands. The western half of the eastern part and the southeastern half of the western part are in the New England Upland Section of the same province and division. The northwestern half of the western part is in the Hudson Valley Section of the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachian Highlands. This MLRA is a very scenic area of rolling to hilly uplands that are broken by many gently sloping to level valleys that terminate in coastal lowlands. Elevation ranges from sea level to 1,000 feet in much of the area, but it is 2,000 feet on some hills. Relief is mostly about 6 to 65 feet in the valleys and about 80 to 330 feet in the uplands.
This area has been glaciated and consists almost entirely of till plains and drumlins dissected by narrow valleys with a thin mantle of till. The southernmost boundary of the area marks the farthest southward extent of glaciation on the eastern seaboard. The river valleys and coastal plains are filled with glacial lake sediments, marine sediments, and glacial outwash. The bedrock in the eastern half of the area consists primarily of igneous and metamorphic rocks of early Paleozoic age. Granite is the most common igneous rock, and gneiss, schist, and slate are the most common metamorphic rocks. In the parts of the MLRA in northeastern Pennsylvania and in eastern and southeastern New York, Devonian- to Pennsylvanian-age sandstone, shale, and limestone bedrock is dominant. Carbonate rocks, primarily dolomite and limestone, are the dominant kinds of bedrock in the part of this MLRA in northwestern Connecticut.
Classification relationships
This ecological site is found in Major Land Resource Area 144A - the New England and Eastern New York Upland, Southern Part. MLRA 144A is located within Land Resource Region R - the Northeastern Forage and Forest Region (USDA 2006); and in the United States Forest Service National Hierarchical Classification: Province 221 - Eastern Broadleaf Forest, and Section 221A – Lower New England, while also touching Section 222O - Mohawk Valley, and Section M212C – Taconic Mountains and Section M212B – New England Adirondacks (Cleland et al. 2007). In addition, as classified by EPA Ecoregion Level III, MLRA 144AA falls within Area #59 – Northeast Coastal Zone and the southernmost part of Area #58 – the Northeaster Highlands (USEPA 2013) and touches the northern most reaches of Area #67 – Ridge and Valley. Laurentian-Acadian Floodplain Forest SYSTEM- CES201.587 and Acer saccharum - Fraxinus spp. - Tilia americana / Matteuccia struthiopteris - Ageratina altissima Floodplain Forest ASSOCIATION- CEGL006114 (NatureServe 2015).
Ecological site concept
The site consists of deep, coarse-loamy, well drained, alluvial soils on high floodplains of mostly small to medium sized river valleys but can also be found within larger river valleys. The site is flooded less frequently or for a shorter duration than low floodplains. Representative soils are Occum and Wappinger.
The reference community is a sugar maple - white ash forest. Associated vegetation includes American elm, bitternut hickory, American sycamore, silver maple, American bladdernut, toothworts, ostrich fern, and sedges such as Sprengel's sedge (Metzler and Barrett 2006). Unlike low floodplain forests, silver maple is absent from this community. Limited examples of this forest type exist since they have mostly been converted to agricultural use.
River types such as large, low gradient and small-medium low and high gradient rivers differ in hydrologic regime and fluvial geomorphology and consequently have different community composition (Marks et al. 2011).
Table 1. Dominant plant species
Tree |
(1) Acer saccharum |
---|---|
Shrub |
Not specified |
Herbaceous |
(1) Carex sprengelii |
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