Terrestrial Field Exam

Norway maple

Witch-hazel

Japanese barberry

Black ash

Black oak

Bigtooth aspen

(mesic site indicator)

Creeping strawberry-bush

Black walnut

(basic site indicator)

Mapleleaf viburnum

(acid site indicator)

low-sweet blueberry

(WET site indicator)

Buttonbush

Yellow birch

American elm

Prickly-ash

(mesic indicator)

Spicebush

Shagbark hickory

Chokecherry

Tulip tree

Pignut hickory

Northern red oak

Red maple

Bassword

Black cherry

Sugar maple

White ash

Low-sweet blueberry

Red bud

Quaking aspen

Willow

Autumn olive

Glossy buckthorn

Common buckthorn

Tree-of-heaven

Eastern cottonwood

O (organic)

A

B

C

Ice laid landform

Moraine

Ice contact landforms

Kettles, kames, and eskers

O subhorizons

• Oi: Slightly decomposed organic material

• Oe: Moderately decomposed organic material

• Oa: Highly decomposed organic material

A Subhorizon

Ap: Topsoil altered or disturbed by plowing or human activity

B Subhorizons

• Bc: Concretions or hard nonconcretionary nodules

• Bh: Illuvial accumulation of organic matter

• Bs: Illuvial accumulation of sesquioxides (iron) and organic matter

• Bt: Accumulation of silicate clay

• Bw: Development of color or structural B

Sand

Can’t form a ball

5% or more sand, and the percentage of silt plus 1.5 times the percentage of clay is 15 or less. Sands are often described as very coarse, coarse, medium, medium-fine, fine, or very fine sand.

Loamy sand

Can form a ball but can’t form ribbon

At the upper limit, 85-90% sand and the percentage of silt plus 1.5 times the percentage of clay is 15 or more; at the lower limit, 70-80% sand and the percentage of silt plus 2 times the percentage of clay is 30 or less.

Sandy loam

Forms 1in ribbon, feels very gritty

20% or less clay and 52% or more sand and the percentage of silt plus 2 times the percentage of clay exceeds 30; or less than 7% clay, less than 50% silt, and 43-52% sand.

Sandy clay loam

Forms 2in ribbon, feels very gritty

20-35% clay, less than 28% silt, and 45% or more sand.

Clay loam

Forms 2in ribbon, neither smooth nor grittty

27-40% clay and 20-45% sand.

Silty clay loam

Forms 2in ribbon, very smooth

27-40% clay and less than 20% sand.

Sandy clay

Forms >2in ribbon, very gritty

35% or more clay and 45% or more sand.

Silty clay

Forms >2in ribbon, very smooth

40% or more clay and 40% or more silt.

Clay

Forms >2in ribbon, neither smooth nor grittty

40% or more clay, less than 45% sand, and less than 40% silt.

Organic soils types

• fibric (>75% fiber after rubbing)

• hemic (17-75% fiber after rubbing)

• sapric (<17% fiber after rubbing)

O horizons

Layers dominated by organic material.

O horizons are typically separated into:

• Oi (top layer, least decomposed)

• Oe (moderately decomposed)

• Oa (layer closest to the mineral soil, highly decomposed)

A horizon

Mineral horizons that formed at the surface or below an O horizon and

(1) are characterized by an accumulation of humified organic matter intimately mixed with the mineral fraction and not dominated by properties characteristic of E or B horizons

(2) have properties resulting from cultivation, pasturing, or similar kinds of disturbance.

A horizons may be described simply as A, or as Ap (if past plowing is evident). Transitional zones are designated AB or even AC.

E horizon

Mineral horizons in which the main feature is loss of silicate clay, iron aluminum, or some combination of these, leaving a concentration of sand and silt particles of quartz or other resistant materials. Transitional zones are designated EB.

B horizons

Horizons that formed beneath an A, E, or O horizon and are dominated by obliteration of all or much of the original rock structure and by:

(1) illuvial concentration of silicate clay, iron, aluminum, humus, carbonates, gypsum, or silica, alone or in combination

(2) evidence of removal of carbonates

(3) residual concentration of sesquioxides

(4) coatings of sesquioxides that make the horizon conspicuously lower in value, higher in chroma, or redder in hue than overlying and underlying horizons without apparent illuviation of iron

(5) alteration that forms silicate clay or liberates oxides or both and that forms granular, blocky, or prismatic structure if volume changes accompany changes in moisture content

(6) any combination of these

C horizon

Horizons or layers, excluding hard bedrock, that are little affected by pedogenic processes and lack properties of O, A, E, or B horizons.

Dry site species

Open Oak

• Northern pin oak

• Black oak

• Dwarf chinkapin oak

Dry-mesic species

Oak-Hickory

• Black oak

• White oak

• Northern red oak

• Shagbark hickory

• White ash

• Black cherry

• Black walnut

• Witch-hazel

• Low-sweet blueberry

• Downy arrow-wood

• Mapleleaf viburnum

Mesic species

Beech-Sugar Maple

• Sugar maple

• American beech

• Basswood

• Tulip tree

• Bitternut Hickory

• Northern red oak

• White ash

• Creeping strawberry bush

• Leatherwood

Wet mesic species

Deciduous swamp

• American elm

• Red maple

• Black ash

• Yellow birch

• Tamarack

• Michigan holly

• Spicebush

• Poison sumac

• Highbush blueberry

Wet species

Open bog

• Tamarack

• Black spruce

• Leatherleaf

Periodically flooded - Floodplain species

• Willow

• Eastern cottonwood

• Swamp white oak

• Bur oak

• Shagbark hickory

• Basswood

• Buttonbush

Periodically Flooded - 1st Bottom species

• Silver maple

• American elm

• Red ash

Bitternut hickory

A: Black ash

B: White ash

C: Green/Red ash

Green ash

A: Black ash

B: Green ash

C: White ash

White ash

Black ash

Green ash

A: Sugar maple

B: Red maple

C: Silver maple

D: Black maple

A: Red maple

B: Silver maple

C: Sugar maple

D: Norway maple

Red maple

Silver maple

Sugar maple

Northern red oak

Pignut hickory

Pignut hickory

Shagbark hickory

A: Shagbark hickory

B: Bitternut hickory

C: Pignut hickory

White oak

Black oak

Northern red oak

Northern pin oak

Bur oak

Oak site tolerance and moisture

Northern pin oak: Dry and very shade intolerant (dry open sites)

Black oak: Dry mesic and shade intolerant

White oak: Dry mesic and mid-intolerant

Northern red oak: Mesic and tolerant

Mesophytic invaders

• Red maple

• Sugar maple

• American beech

Balsam fir

Eastern hemlock

Mesophytes

sugar maple, American beech, red maple, American elm, basswood

Strobili

Strobili are cones: small male cones that make pollen and larger female cones that bear ovules and seeds.

idk how to quiz this but this is really helpful

Year 0, Year 1, and Year 2 - Cone reproduction

Year 0: Cone primordia initiated

Year 1: Strobili (cones) form, pollen matures, pollination occurs

Year 2: Fertilization occurs, strobili ripen into mature cones, seeds dispersed

Blips

Unpollinated collapsed ovule (Many blips suggest bad pollen year)

Seed present but empty (Cone biology)

Pollination occurred but fertilization did not (selfing?)

Ice-laid

• Till (unstratified drift)

• Not sorted

• Ground, end, and interlobate moraines (rolling terrain)