Northern Appalachian Wetland Ecological Sites and Their States of Disturbance for Select Benchmark Soils.

Nationwide, the development and application of Ecological Site Descriptions (ES) and associated State and Transition Models (S&T) is a high-priority focus of the USDA-NRCS. Development of wetland ESDs is necessary to support a range of conservation and management decisions such as identifying reference sites for the application of Swampbuster provisions within the Food Security Act. We identified the Ecological Site for each of three extensively mapped (2.9 million ha) benchmark- wetland soils in the northern Appalachians (Cavode, Brinkerton, and Armagh). ESDs were tied to existing wetland hydrogeomorphic models and exemplified typical headwater topographic slope, stratigraphic slope, and/or depression perennial wetland systems. Provisional S&T models reflect historic disturbance tied to forest clearing and agriculture. Soil organic carbon was highly variable for each soil series within an Ecological Site. While hydric soil morphology was common for Armagh and Brinkerton, it was not often encountered where Cavode was mapped; Cavode appears most prone to agricultural land conversion via tile-drainage. In the case of all soils, USDA-NRCS soil mapping concepts are broad and it is likely more refined series concepts need to be derived for effective ESs and S&T models.