Munterville: A New Soil Series in Iowa

Before 2009, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff noticed plant roots and argillans deep within the B horizon of Gosport polypedons (a fine, illitic, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudept) while updating Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) 108 (Illinois and Iowa deep loess and drift) and 109 (Iowa and Missouri heavy till plain) in the central United States. In 2009, Gosport soils in MLRAs 108 and 109 were remapped and reclassified. Both map unit transects and the relevé method were used to identify pedons for detailed laboratory analyses. Eight pedons representing Gosport soils were collected from eight counties in southern Iowa, USA (Davis, Jefferson, Keokuk, Lucas, Mahaska, Marion, Monroe, and Van Buren). All of the pedons were described, analyzed, and classified. The results revealed two groups of soils, which are different than that of Gosport: Alfisols, newly named as the Munterville series (fine, mixed, smectitic or kaolinitic, active or superactive, mesic Oxyaquic Hapludalfs), and Ultisols (fine, mixed or kaolinitic, active, mesic Oxyaquic Hapludults) that have not yet been assigned a series name. The aims of this work were to reclassify the Gosport soils and detect the lithologic discontinuities within their sola.