Ecological site group DX035X01IESG12
Little Colorado River Basin-Loamy Soils moderately deep or deeper (slopes >15% and >35% rock fragments)
Last updated: 10/25/2022
Accessed: 05/02/2024
Ecological site group description
Key Characteristics
- Little Colorado River Basin
- Loamy
- Does not receive extra run-in moisture
- Moderately deep or deeper
- Slopes are greater than 15% and the upper part of the soil has more than 35% rock fragments
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.
Physiography
This ecological site occurs as colluvial side-slopes of hills, escarpments and cliffs. Slopes generally range from 15 to 65 percent. This site occurs in an upland position. It neither benefits significantly from run-in moisture nor does it suffer from excessive loss of moisture from runoff, unless denuded of its vegetative cover.
Climate
The 35.2 Colorado Plateau Cold Desert Shrub - Grassland common resource area has a very dry and windy climate that is hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The annual precipitation averages between 6 and 10 inches. The soil moisture regime is typic aridic and the soil temperature regime is mesic. A slight majority of the precipitation arrives during the late fall, winter, and early spring. This winter season moisture originates in the Pacific Ocean and arrives as rain, or sometimes snow, during widespread frontal storms of generally low intensity. The majority of the snow (average range of 1 to 17 inches) falls from December through February, but rarely lasts more than a few days. A seasonal drought occurs from late May through early July. Summer rains occur from July through September during brief intense local thunderstorms. The rain is sporadic in intensity and location. The moisture originates from the Gulf of Mexico in the early summer and the Gulf of California in the late summer/early fall. Windy conditions are common year round, but the winds are strongest and most frequent during the spring.
Soil features
Soils on this site are moderately deep to deep on slopes and may have small pockets of shallow soils. Surface textures range from extremely gravelly loam to fine sand to extremely gravelly fine sandy loam. Subsurface textures are gravelly fine sandy loam to very fine sandy loam.
These soils formed in colluvium, alluvium and residuum from sandstone, siltstone and conglomerate materials from Recapture and Westwater canyon members of the Morrison formation. The moisture regime is typic aridic and the temperature regime is mesic.
Vegetation dynamics
The plant community is made up of mid and short grasses with a significant percentage of desert shrubs and a few forbs. In the original plant community there is a mixture of both cool and warm season grasses.
Plant species most likely to invade or increase on this site when it deteriorates are blackbrush and annuals.
Major Land Resource Area
MLRA 035X
Colorado Plateau
Correlated Map Unit Components
22395054, 22396661
Stage
Provisional
Contributors
Curtis Talbot
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