Creating a Seamless Coastal Zone Soil Survey - Schedschd.ws/hosted_files/nearcfall2016/9d/NEARC_CZSS_2016.pdf · Creating a Seamless Coastal Zone Soil Survey Maggie K. Payne, ...

Crossing the Divide – Creating a Seamless Coastal Zone

Soil Survey

Maggie K. Payne, Jim Turenne

USDA NRCS

Northeast Arc Users Conference From Summit to Sea, the Landscape

of GIS North Falmouth, MA October 16-19, 2016

USDA is an equal opportunity employer, provider, and lender

Overview

• Introduction to soils data

• Recent updates

• Coastal zone soil survey initiative

• Interpretation potential

• Where to get the data

Terrestrial (Subaerial) Maps

Subaqueous Maps

Pedologic (Soils) Approach Soil Surveys

• Studied to depth of 2m

• Well-developed classification system (Soil Taxonomy)

• Soil units linked to landscape

• Attribute rich data

• Multiple uses

Why Map Subaqueous and Coastal Soils?

• Coastal Development

• Sea level rise

• Carbon/Blue carbon

• Living shorelines

• Thin layer deposition

• Aquaculture

• Shellfish restoration

• Eelgrass restoration

• Accurate inventories for future projects

• Intense land use - lots of data gaps

Coastal Zone Soil Survey Initiative

Before

Water

Udipsamments: sand

Matunuck: 8-16” of peat

over sand

Beaches:

After

Beaches, sandy surface

Beaches, bouldery surface

Hooksan, Succotash, Sandyhook

drainage catena

Matunuck (8-16”) Pawcatuck (16-50”)

Subaqueous soil information

Challenges – language and gaps

Challenges – elevation and tides

Use and Management - Interpretations

• Coastal erosion hazards

• Marsh restoration

• Carbon sequestration

• Eelgrass habitat potential

• Shellfish habitat potential

• Dredge material disposal concerns

Beaches - sandy

Hooksan

Sandyhook Succotash

Coastal Erosion Hazards

Carbon Accounting

% Organic Carbon in top 100 cm of soil

Ninigret Pond Mean Oyster Length (cm)

October 2008

a a ab

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Washover Fan Slope Washover Fan Mainland Cove Lagoon Bottom

cm

n=90 n=90 n=90 n=90

4.96 4.81 4.69 4.23

26% 16% 18% 2%

After one growing season more than 25% of the Washover Fan Slope oysters were within 15 mm of legal size or were legal sized.

Only 2% of the lagoon bottom oysters were within 15 mm of legal size.

Percent sand (0-30 cm)

Dredge materials

• Acid sulfate soil potential

Ninigret Incubation pH

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

9.00

8/20

/200

7

9/3/200

7

9/17

/200

7

10/1/2

007

10/15/200

7

10/29/200

7

pH

Flood Tidal Delta

Washover Fan

Lagoon Bottom

Mainland Cove

Where to get data

• Web Soil Survey (WSS)

– NRCS official data

– Spatial or tabular

– Map online or download for use in GIS

• Google Earth and SoilWeb

– Easy viewing

– Not necessarily up-to-date

Web Soil Survey

Google Earth and Soil Web

Questions?

[email protected] http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/ma/soils/