SSURGO Soil Orders, Santa Barbara County, California

Jun 15, 2016 (Last modified Apr 18, 2017)
Open in Map
Open in Map
Description:
This Soil Orders dataset is from the USDA SSURGO soils database; the dataset was clipped by a buffered boundary of Santa Barbara County, California.  The attribute displayed is "taxorder", and the dataset also includes the "taxsuborder" attribute.  

The entire dataset can be downloaded from the following website:  http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

A description of all soil orders can be found at:  http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_053092.pdf

From that publication, a description of each soil order visible in this dataset is listed below:

Alfisols:  are in semiarid to moist areas.  These soils result from weathering processes that leach clay minerals and other constituents out of the surface layer and into the subsoil, where they can hold and supply moisture and nutrients to plants.  They form primarily under forests or mixed vegetative cover and are productive for most crops.

Aridisols:  are soils that are too dry for the growth of mesophytic plants.  The lack of moisture greatly restricts the intensity of weathering processes and limits most soil development processes to the upper part of the soils.  Aridisols often accumulate gypsum, salt, calcium carbonate, and other materials that are easily leached from soils in more humid environments.

Entisols - are soils that show little or nor evidence of pedogenic horizon development. They are constructed of recent parent materials or in areas where deposition and erosion rater are faster than the rate of soil development; such as dunes, steep slopes, and flood plains.  They occur in many environments.

Inceptisols:  are soils of semiarid to humid environments that generally exhibit only moderate degrees of soil weathering and development.  Inceptisols have a wide range of characteristics and occur in a wide variety of climates.  

Mollisols - are soils that have a dark colored surface horizon relatively high in content of organic matter. The soils are base rich throughout and therefore quite fertile.  Mollisols characteristically form under grass in climates that have a moderate to pronounced seasonal moisture deficit.  They are extensive soils on the steppes of Europe, Asia, North America, and South America.  

Ultisols:  are soils in humid areas.  They formed from fairly intense weathering and leachign processes that result in a clay-enriched subsoil dominated by minerals, such as quartz, kaolinite, and iron oxides.  Ultisols are typically acid soils in which most nutrients are are concentrated in the upper few inches.  They have a moderately low capacity to retain additions of of lime and fertilizer.

Vertisols:  have a high content of expanding clay minerals.  They undergo pronounced changes in volume with changes in moisture.  They have cracks that open and close periodically, and that show evidence of soil movement in the profile.  Because they swell when wet, vertisols transmit water very slowly and have undergone little leaching.  They tend to be fairly high in natural fertility.  

Data Provided By:
United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service
Content date:
January 2016
Citation:
Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Web Soil Survey. Available online at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/.
Contact Organization:
United States Department of Agriculture
Contact Person(s):
not specified
Use Constraints:
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Layer:
Layer Type:
Currently Visible Layer:
All Layer Options:
Layers in this dataset are based on combinations of the following options. You may choose from these options to select a specific layer on the map page.
Description:
Spatial Resolution:
Credits:
Citation:
Purpose:
Methods:
References:
Other Information:
Time Period:
Layer Accuracy:
Attribute Accuracy:
FGDC Standard Metadata XML
Click here to see the full FGDC XML file that was created in Data Basin for this layer.
Original Metadata XML
Click here to see the full XML file that was originally uploaded with this layer.
This dataset is visible to everyone
Dataset Type:
Layer Package
Tags:
agriculture, ssurgo, soil order, california, santa barbara, soils
Downloaded by 1 Member
Bookmarked by 1 Member , 2 Groups
Included in 10 Public Maps , 12 Private Maps
Included in 3 Public Galleries

About the Uploader

Conservation Biology Institute

We provide advanced conservation science, technology, and planning to empower our partners in solving the world’s critical ecological challenges