LOCATION LIMA NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Lima loam, on a 3 percent slope in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist broken soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap-- 0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) loam; moderate medium and fine granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 10 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (7 to 12 inches thick.)
Bt/E-- 9 to 12 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many fine roots; many fine pores with clay linings; common worm channels; brown (10YR 5/3), very pale brown (10YR 7/3) dry, silt and very fine sand coats 1 to 3 millimeters thick on vertical faces of peds that constitutes less than 15 percent of the layer ; 10 percent rock fragments; common fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) redoximorphic accumulations; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick.)
Bt1-- 12 to 16 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; common fine pores; many fine distinct clay films on ped faces and on surfaces along pores; 10 percent rock fragments; common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) redoximorphic accumulations; slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bt2-- 16 to 25 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) gravelly loam perceptibly finer than Bt1; moderate medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; few fine roots; common fine spherical pores; thin to moderately thick distinct clay films on 10 to 20 percent of vertical and horizontal faces of peds and on surfaces along pores; 15 percent rock fragments; common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) redoximorphic accumulations; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizons is 6 to 20 inches.)
C-- 25 to 72 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) gravelly loam; weak medium and thick plate-like divisions; very firm; common light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) coats of segregated lime along some divisions; 30 percent rock fragments; common fine and medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) redoximorphic accumulations that decrease with depth; strongly effervescent, moderately alkaline.
TYPE LOCATION: Cayuga County, New York; 300 yards north and 25 yards west of road junction at headquarters Aurora Experimental Farm 2 miles west of Poplar Ridge. USGS Sheldrake, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 44 minutes, 15 seconds N. and Longitude 76 degrees, 39 minutes, 31 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 20 to 29 inches. Depth to carbonates ranges from 15 to 32 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Rock fragments range from 5 to 30 percent, by volume, in the solum and from 20 to 50 percent in the substratum, and includes 3 to 10 percent greater than 3 inches in diameter. Unless limed, reaction ranges from moderately acid through slightly alkaline in the solum and it is slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline in the substratum. Higher reactions in the solum are more common in the lower part of the B horizon which may be calcareous in some pedons.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 through 5 and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture ranges from fine sandy loam to silt loam in the fine earth fraction. It has weak or moderate medium or fine granular structure, and friable or very friable consistence.
Some pedons have a thin E or BE horizon.
The Bt/E horizon has properties like the Bt horizon in the interiors of the peds. The E portion has hue of 10YR with value of 4 through 7 and chroma of 2 or 3. Redoximorphic features with high chroma may or may not be present. Thin E/B horizons are present above the B/E horizon in some pedons.
The Bt horizon has hue of 5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5 and chroma of 3 or 4. It has few through many distinct or prominent high chroma redoximorphic concentrations. Texture is loam, silt loam, silty clay loam, or clay loam in the fine-earth fraction, with the average clay content ranging from 18 to 28 percent. The Bt horizon has weak or moderate, fine through coarse blocky or subangular blocky, and/or very coarse prismatic structure. Consistence is friable or firm. Some pedons have a BC horizon, with colors and textures similar to the B and C horizon.
The C or Cd horizon has hue of 5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is fine sandy loam, loam or silt loam in the fine-earth fraction. It is massive, or has weak or moderate medium or thick plate-like divisions. Consistence is friable through very firm. Some pedons have a firm C horizon above the Cd horizon. Other pedons have a 2C and 3C horizon.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Adamstown, Beech, Blakeslee, Cazenovia, El Dara, Funkstown, Hilton, Kidami, Miami, Pevely, Rainsville, Rawson, Richland, Shawtown, Summitville, and Vaughnsville series in the same family. Adamstown, Kidami, Miami, and Rainsville have lithologic discontinuities within 20 inches of the surface. Beech soils do not have carbonates within 80 inches. Blakeslee, Rawson, Shawtown, and Vaughnsville are formed in outwash and other stratified materials. Cazenovia soils have 28 to 35 percent clay in the control section. El Dara soils are formed in Cretaceous deposits. Funkstown soils have limestone residuum below a depth of 25 inches. Hilton soils have solum that is deeper than 29 inches. Pevely soils have a lithic contact within a depth of 40 inches. Summitville soils have a paralithic contact between 40 and 80 inches.
The Aurora, Conesus, Danley, Honeoye, Lansing, Ontario, Nunda, Wampsville, and Wassaic are series in similar families. Aurora and Wassaic soils have bedrock within a depth of 40 inches. Conesus, Danley, and Nunda soils have 2 chroma redoximorphic depletions in the argillic horizon. Honeoye, Lansing, and Ontario soils lack the high-chroma concentrations typical of the Bt horizon of Lima soils. Wampsville soils are stratified in the lower part of the series control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Dominantly nearly level to moderately steep parts of till plains. Slope ranges from 0 to 20 percent. The soil formed in till derived from limestone and calcareous shale. The till is sometimes dense. Calcium carbonate equivalent is mainly between 15 and 45 percent of the fine earth fraction in the substratum. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 45 inches, mean annual temperature ranges from 45 degrees to 50 degrees F., and the mean frost-free season ranges from 120 to 180 days. Elevation ranges from 250 to 1700 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Lima soils are in a drainage sequence with the well drained Honeoye, the somewhat poorly drained Kendaia or Appleton, and the poorly drained or very poorly drained Lyons soils. Other associates are the Aurora, Collamer, Conesus, Dunkirk, Hudson, Madalin, Niagara, Palmyra, and Rhinebeck soils. Aurora soils are in nearby areas where bedrock is within 40 inches of the soil surface. Collamer, Dunkirk and Niagara soils are in adjacent silty lacustrine sediments. Conesus soils are in areas were the depth to carbonates is deeper. Hudson, Rhinebeck and Madalin are on nearby clayey lacustrine plains. Palmyra soils are on adjacent well drained outwash terraces.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is very low to very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high within the solum, but is low or moderately high in the underlying substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are used to raise vegetables, some fruit crops, wheat, corn, oats, hay, soybeans and dry beans. Woodlots contain sugar maple, white ash, red and white oak, hickory, black cherry, hop hornbeam and associated species.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Dominantly western New York but extending from extreme western New York to the Mohawk Valley. MLRA's 101 and 140. Lima is an extensive series.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Livingston County, New York 1940.
REMARKS: This series was previously in the Glossoboric subgroup, but the Oxyaquic subgroup takes president in The 8th Edition of the Keys to Soil Taxonomy. After a review of the use of the Lima and Hilton series the range of the solum depth of Lima is changed to 20 to 29 and the competing series section was updated.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon:
1. Ochric epipedon - The zone from the surface to a depth of 9 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Argillic horizon - The zone from 9 to 25 inches (Bt/E and Bt horizons).
3. Oxyaquic subgroup - Is saturated with water in one or more layers within 100 cm. of the mineral surface for more than 30 cumulative days in normal years (Bt horizons redoximorphic features).