vegetation. Again, one must become familiar with 

 the ecology of these wetland types (see Appendix 

 A for readings). 



8) Caprock limestone wetlands - These wet- 

 lands are found in the Everglades region of south- 

 em Florida. The substrate, commonly called "rock- 

 land," is composed mainly of Miami oolite or 

 Tamiami limestone with a very thin covering of 

 unconsolidated soil material in places. Plant com- 

 munities are varied ranging from saw grass {Cladi- 

 umjamaicense; OBL) marshes to slash pine {Pinus 

 elliottii; FACW) forested wetlands. However, 

 exotic species with drier indicator statuses are 

 invading many areas and replacing native species. 

 These exotics include Brazilian pepper {Schinus 

 terebinthifolim; FAC), cajeput {Melaleuca quinque- 

 nervis; FAC), and Australian pines (Casuarina 

 spp.; FACU). These wetlands are inundated annu- 

 ally and the water table is at or near the land surface 

 for prolonged periods, as long as nine months in 

 places. Hydric soils may not be present in many 

 places in these wetlands, since substrate (consoli- 

 dated material) predominates and little or no soil 

 (unconsolidated material) may exist. Despite the 

 lack of hydric soils in places, these areas are wet- 

 lands because they meet the wetland hydrology cri- 

 terion. 



9) Newly created wetlands - These wedands 

 include manmade (artificial) wetlands, beaver- 

 created wetlands, and other natural wetlands. Arti- 

 ficial wetlands may be purposely or accidentally 

 created (e.g., road impoundments, undersized cul- 

 verts, irrigation, and seepage from eanh-dammed 

 impoundments) by human activities. Many of these 

 areas will have indicators of wetland hydrology 

 and hydrophytic vegetation. But the area may lack 

 typical field characteristics of hydric soils, since the 

 soils have just recently been inundated and/or satu- 

 rated. Since all of these wetlands are newly esta- 

 blished, field indicators of one or more of the wet- 

 land identification criteria may not be present. 



10) Entisols (floodplain and sandy soils) - Enti- 

 sols are usually young or recently formed soils that 

 have little or no evidence of pedogenically devel- 

 oped horizons (U.S.D.A. Soil Survey Staff 1975). 

 These soils are typical of floodplains throughout 

 the U.S., but are also found in glacial outwash 

 plains, along tidal waters, and in other areas. They 

 include sandy soils of riverine islands, bars, and 

 banks and finer-textured soils of floodplain terrac- 

 es. Wet entisols have an aquic or peraquic moisture 



regime and are considered hydric soils, unless 

 effectively drained. Some entisols are easily recog- 

 nized as hydric soils such as the sulfaquents of 

 tidal salt marshes, whereas others pose problems 

 because they do not possess typical hydric soil 

 field indicators. Wet sandy entisols (with loamy 

 fine sand and coarser textures in horizons within 

 20 inches of the surface) may lack sufficient organ- 

 ic matter and clay to develop hydric soil colors. 

 When these soils have a hue between lOYR and 

 lOY and distinct or prominent motdes present, a 

 chroma of 3 or less is permitted to identify the soil 

 as hydric (i.e., an aquic moisture regime). Also, 

 hydrologic data showing that NTCHS criteria #3 or 

 #4 (p. 6) are met are sufficient to verify these soils 

 as hydric. Become familiar with wet entisols and 

 their diagnostic field properties (see "Soil Taxono- 

 my", U.S.D.A. Soil Survey Staff 1975 and county 

 soil surveys). 



1 1) Red parent material soils - Hydric mineral 

 soils derived from red parent materials (e.g., 

 weathered clays, Triassic sandstones, and Triassic 

 shales) may lack the low chroma colors characteris- 

 tic of most hydric mineral soils. In these soils, the 

 hue is redder than lOYR because of parent materi- 

 als that remain red after citrate-dithionite extraction, 

 so the low chroma requirement for hydric soil is 

 waived (U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service 

 1982). Red soils are most common along the Gulf- 

 Adantic Coastal Plain (Ultisols), but are also found 

 in the Midwest and pans of the Southwest and 

 West (Alfisols), in the tropics, and in glacial areas 

 where older landscapes of red shales and sand- 

 stones have been exposed. Become familiar with 

 these hydric soils and leam how to recognize them 

 in the field (see "Soil Taxonomy", U.S.D.A. Soil 

 Survey Staff 1975 and county soil surveys). 



12) Spodosols (evergreen forest soils) - These 

 soils, usually associated with coniferous forests, 

 are common in nonhern temperate and boreal 

 regions of the U.S. and are also prevalent along the 

 Gulf-Adanric Coastal Plain. Spodosols have a gray 

 eluvial E-horizon overlying a diagnosric spodic 

 horizon of accumulated (sometimes weakly 

 cemented) organic matter and aluminum (U.S.D.A. 

 Soil Survey Staff 1975). A process called podzoli- 

 zation is responsible for creating these two soil 

 layers. Organic acids from the leaf litter on the soil 

 surface are moved downward through the soil with 

 rainfall, cleaning the sand grains in the fu^t horizon 

 then coating the sand grains with organic matter 

 and iron oxides in the second layer. Certain vegeta- 



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