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Alaskan soil conditions range from loamy to sandy, with all ranges in between. In many parts of Alaska, the soil is acidic, and could greatly improve with the introduction of lime or wood ash. The biomes range from tundra, which is rich in underlying peat moss to taiga, boreal forest, and temperate rain forest.
The Tanana soil consists of shallow to deep, poorly drained alluvium or silty micaceous loess over an alluvial bed with permafrost. They occur on alluvial flats and terraces. Slopes range from 0 to 12 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 12 inches (300 mm) and the mean annual temperature is about 24 °F (−4 °C).
Not only do conifer trees thrive in acidic soils, they actually make the soil more acidic. Acidic leaflitter (or needles) from conifers falls to the forest floor and the precipitation leaches the acids down into the soil. Other species that can tolerate the acidic soils of the taiga are lichens and mosses, yellow nutsedge, and water horsetail.
Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or peatland, and is a standard term in Canada and Alaska. The term became common in these areas because it is of Cree origin; maskek (ᒪᐢᑫᐠ) meaning "low-lying marsh". [1]
Known by the U.S. Forest Service as the "crown jewel", the Tongass stretches across 17 million acres of land and is Alaska's largest National Forest. [35] Alaska Wilderness League describes the Tongass as "one of the last remaining intact temperate rainforests in the world". [36] 70,000 people inhabit the region. [35]
The mountainous terrain, glacial soils, and climate did not favour large-scale agriculture. The Matanuska, Susitna and Knik river valleys are of glacial origin and are hemmed in by high mountain ranges: the Alaska Range curves in the northwest, Talkeetna Mountains rise to the north and Chugach Mountains to the east. The marks of glacial ...
This is an area of low, flat, boggy coastal plains. The underlying soil of this damp Arctic coast is thick, solid permafrost, covered in summer with thermokarst "thaw lakes" of melted ice. Ice features such as ice wedges and pingo mounds of soil and ice can be found. This coast has an arctic climate warm enough to allow plant growth in late ...
A soil family category is a group of soils within a subgroup and describes the physical and chemical properties which affect the response of soil to agricultural management and engineering applications. The principal characteristics used to differentiate soil families include texture, mineralogy, pH, permeability, structure, consistency, the ...