Map Unit Descriptions
Geomorphic Component: Discharge Slope
Hydrologic Component: SC; SCd
Extent: 31 wetland polygons; 192.2 ha; 0.14% of wetland area; 0.19% of wetland polygons.
 A wetland mapped as SC near the Village of Nikolaevsk (polygon 7214). |
Wetland Indicators Type: Mineral or Peat Average depth to water table: 54.8 cm; n=5 Organic layer thickness: 39.1 cm; n=7 Average depth to redoximorphic features: 17.2 cm; n=6 Common Soils: BELUGA, NIKOLAI, KALIFONSKY Common Plant communities:
NWI: PEM1Bn,g HGM: Terrene Slope groundwater-dominated Throughflow |
Accuracy assessment: 3 polygons interpreted as SC on aerial photographs were field checked. They all remained SC. |
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Wetlands are mapped as SC when bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis) covers an area where groundwater discharges at a toe- or footslope. Wetlands mapped as SC are relatively uncommon, although many of the fields covered with bluejoint reedgrass on the foot- and toeslopes of the Homer Bench are mapped as SC. Bluejoint reedgrass may or may not indicate disturbance, and usually indicates that the mineral substrate is less than a meter beneath any layer of organic material.
A slope covered with bluejoint reedgrass can be either very wet, or an upland. The presence of field horsetail (Equisetum arvense), or marsh horsetail (E. palustre) mixed in with the tall bluejoint, is a good indicator that the site may meet the criteria for a wetland that are defined in the 1987 Army Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual.
In Homer, the name SCd refers to a wetland that was SC but is now disturbed.
