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Characteristics and Vegetation Relationships of Some Podzolic Soils Near the Coast of Northern California¹

ABSTRACT

A survey of vegetation and soil of wild lands in Mendocino County in northern California was completed in 1951. This survey disclosed the occurrence near the coast of some distinct podzolic soil, unique in relation to most other soils of the state, of unexpected extent, and having in part distinct vegetation associations.

This northern coastal area has cool, nearly rainless but foggy summers and mild, wet winters. Precipitation averages between 35 and 40 inches; maximum temperatures during summer average about 65° F., and minimum temperatures during winter average about 40° F.; growing season is about 285 days.

This paper deals with morphological and some chemical and physical characteristics of three soil series, the Blacklock, Noyo, and Caspar; their geographical distribution along the coast on sandy deposits, and their vegetation associations. The Blacklock, a Ground-Water Podzol, occurs on flat or gently sloping surfaces and supports a unique "pygmy" forest, chiefly of Bolander pine and Mendocino cypress. The Noyo and Caspar are of questionable great-soil-group classification but both are distinctly podzolic in character, the Noyo showing a stronger degree of podzolization than the Caspar. The Noyo supports a cover chiefly of Bishop pine and the Caspar chiefly one of redwood and Douglas-fir.

¹ Contribution from the Soil Survey, S.C.S., and the California Forest and Range Exp. Sta., Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkeley, Calif., and the Division of Soil Management and Irrigation Agriculture, B.P.I.S.A.E., A.R.A., U.S.D.A., Beltsville, Md. Presented before Division V, Soil Science Society of America, Dallas, Tex., Nov. 18, 1953.

² Senior Soil Correlator, Soil Survey, and Forester, California Forest and Range Exp. Sta. Laboratory analyses by Victor J. Kilmer, Division of Soil Management and Irrigation Agriculture.

Received for publication December 9, 1953.