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Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Ecological site F144AY042NY
Semi-Rich Organic Wetlands
Accessed: 08/17/2024
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 (0 to 305 meters) in much of the area, but it is 2,000 feet (610 meters) on some hills. Relief is mostly about 6 to 65 feet (2 to 20 meters) in the valleys and about 80 to 330 feet (25 to 100 meters) 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.
Ecological site concept
The site consists of very deep, very poorly drained organic soils formed in more than 16 inches of highly decomposed organic material. Slope ranges from 0 to 2 percent. Soils are circumnuetral. Characteristic soils are Catden, Timakwa, and Natchaug.
The site occurs within basins, depressions, swamps, seepage wetlands, and fens occurring within mineral rich soils. These various hydro-geologic settings are the primary determinant of water regimes, water chemistry, plant community structure and floristics, and groundwater recharge and discharge relationships (Golet et al 1992). Consequently, the reference plant community of the site is variable. In New York (Edinger et al 2014) site coincides with rich graminoid fen, medium fen, red maple-hardwood swamp, highbush blueberry bog, deep emergent marsh, and rich shrub fen. In Massachusetts (Swain and Kearsley 2011) the site coincides with black ash-red maple-tamarack calcareous seepage swamp and red maple-black ash-bur oak swamp. In Connecticut the site coincides with rich fen, shrub thicket, and Circumnuetral northern white cedar swamp.
Natural disturbances affecting the balance of species include fire, windthrow, ice damage, beaver activity. Anthropogenic disturbances such as the construction of drainage ditches, roads, and dams can have significant effects on the plant communities.
Table 1. Dominant plant species
Tree |
(1) Thuja occidentalis |
---|---|
Shrub |
(1) Dasiphora fruticosa |
Herbaceous |
Not specified |
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