15
Conclusions
• The Laurentian Great Lakes contain nearly 17,000 km of
coastline (includes islands). The Great Lakes Coastal
Zone (GLCZ) is defined by the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project (GLEAM) as all
land and water within 5 km of the shorelines.
• Soils are recognized here as “a natural body comprised of
solids (minerals and organic matter), liquid, and gases
that occurs on the land surface, occupies space, and is
characterized by horizons, or layers, that are distinguishable from the initial material as a result of additions,
losses, transfers, and transformation of energy and matter.
• Soils have been described and mapped in the Great Lakes
Coastal Zone since 1901 and include 82 counties in the
USA and 26 counties and districts in Canada.
• More than 800 soil series have been identified in the
GLCZ in Canada and the USA; soils have been mapped
79% of the GLCZ. Areas remaining to be mapped include
the north and east shores of Lakes Superior and Huron.
• Soils in the GLCZ form from a variety of climates due to
latitude, longitude, elevation, and proximity to the lakes
themselves; four broad vegetation types including boreal
forest, temperate mixed coniferous and broad-leaved
forest, broad-leaved forest, and prairie; rocks derived
from Precambrian granites and gneisses and surficial
deposits from glaciers, former lakes, eolian deposits; and
a variety of times during which the sediments were
deposited from more than 14 kyr to a few hundreds of
years.
• Two natural soil classification systems are employed in
this study, including The Canadian System of Soil Classification (1998) and Soil Taxonomy (1999; 2014).
• In the US GLCZ, there are soils representing six orders,
16 suborders, 39 great groups, 140 subgroups, 507 families, and 691 soil series. In the Canadian GLCZ, there are
soils representing five orders, 8 great groups, 17 soil
subgroups, and 144 soil series.
• The ranking of soil orders by numbers of soil series and
soil area in the GLCZ include Alfisols (Luvisols) > Spodosols
(Podzols) > Inceptisols
(some
Brunisols) > Entisols (Regosols) > Mollisols (some
Brunisols) > Histosols (Organic soils).
• Each of the Great Lakes was divided into segments based
on Major Land Resource Area, dominant shoreline parent
materials, and dominant great groups and soil series,
including six for Lake Superior, six for Lake Michigan,
eight for Lake Huron, four for Lake Erie, and two for
Lake Ontario.
• Dominant soil-forming processes in the GLCZ include
gleization (redoximorphic features from restricted drainage), argilluviation (clay translocation), podsolization
(translocation of Fe and Al in combination with organic
C), cambisolization (weak development of color and
structure), melanization (accumulation of mineralized
organic matter at the surface), glossification (degradation
of an argillic horizon), paludization (accumulation of
organic materials), vertization (seasonal cracking), and
anthrosolization (human influences). These process are
linked to great groups and landforms.
• The dominant landforms in the GLCZ include lake
plains-lake terraces (48%), till plains-moraines (26%),
outwash plains (12%), dunes, wind-modified beach ridges, and longshore bars (5.0%), glacial lake benches
(4.4%), and alluvial fans and floodplains (3.9%). The
thickness of lacustrine and glaciolacustrine sediments
ranges from a decimeter to hundreds of meters. Till plains
and moraines have been modified in the Saginaw Bay
area and in eastern Lake Huron by wave-washing. Some
former coastal features occur as much as 150 km inland.
• Eighteen percent of the soils in the US GLCZ are
benchmark soils; 35% are endemic and occur nowhere
else in the USA, 41% are rare (occupy less than
10,000 ha), and 18% are endangered (endemic and rare).
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. G. Bockheim, Soils of the Laurentian Great Lakes, USA and Canada,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52425-8_15
161
Conclusions
• The Laurentian Great Lakes contain nearly 17,000 km of
coastline (includes islands). The Great Lakes Coastal
Zone (GLCZ) is defined by the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project (GLEAM) as all
land and water within 5 km of the shorelines.
• Soils are recognized here as “a natural body comprised of
solids (minerals and organic matter), liquid, and gases
that occurs on the land surface, occupies space, and is
characterized by horizons, or layers, that are distinguishable from the initial material as a result of additions,
losses, transfers, and transformation of energy and matter.
• Soils have been described and mapped in the Great Lakes
Coastal Zone since 1901 and include 82 counties in the
USA and 26 counties and districts in Canada.
• More than 800 soil series have been identified in the
GLCZ in Canada and the USA; soils have been mapped
79% of the GLCZ. Areas remaining to be mapped include
the north and east shores of Lakes Superior and Huron.
• Soils in the GLCZ form from a variety of climates due to
latitude, longitude, elevation, and proximity to the lakes
themselves; four broad vegetation types including boreal
forest, temperate mixed coniferous and broad-leaved
forest, broad-leaved forest, and prairie; rocks derived
from Precambrian granites and gneisses and surficial
deposits from glaciers, former lakes, eolian deposits; and
a variety of times during which the sediments were
deposited from more than 14 kyr to a few hundreds of
years.
• Two natural soil classification systems are employed in
this study, including The Canadian System of Soil Classification (1998) and Soil Taxonomy (1999; 2014).
• In the US GLCZ, there are soils representing six orders,
16 suborders, 39 great groups, 140 subgroups, 507 families, and 691 soil series. In the Canadian GLCZ, there are
soils representing five orders, 8 great groups, 17 soil
subgroups, and 144 soil series.
• The ranking of soil orders by numbers of soil series and
soil area in the GLCZ include Alfisols (Luvisols) > Spodosols
(Podzols) > Inceptisols
(some
Brunisols) > Entisols (Regosols) > Mollisols (some
Brunisols) > Histosols (Organic soils).
• Each of the Great Lakes was divided into segments based
on Major Land Resource Area, dominant shoreline parent
materials, and dominant great groups and soil series,
including six for Lake Superior, six for Lake Michigan,
eight for Lake Huron, four for Lake Erie, and two for
Lake Ontario.
• Dominant soil-forming processes in the GLCZ include
gleization (redoximorphic features from restricted drainage), argilluviation (clay translocation), podsolization
(translocation of Fe and Al in combination with organic
C), cambisolization (weak development of color and
structure), melanization (accumulation of mineralized
organic matter at the surface), glossification (degradation
of an argillic horizon), paludization (accumulation of
organic materials), vertization (seasonal cracking), and
anthrosolization (human influences). These process are
linked to great groups and landforms.
• The dominant landforms in the GLCZ include lake
plains-lake terraces (48%), till plains-moraines (26%),
outwash plains (12%), dunes, wind-modified beach ridges, and longshore bars (5.0%), glacial lake benches
(4.4%), and alluvial fans and floodplains (3.9%). The
thickness of lacustrine and glaciolacustrine sediments
ranges from a decimeter to hundreds of meters. Till plains
and moraines have been modified in the Saginaw Bay
area and in eastern Lake Huron by wave-washing. Some
former coastal features occur as much as 150 km inland.
• Eighteen percent of the soils in the US GLCZ are
benchmark soils; 35% are endemic and occur nowhere
else in the USA, 41% are rare (occupy less than
10,000 ha), and 18% are endangered (endemic and rare).
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. G. Bockheim, Soils of the Laurentian Great Lakes, USA and Canada,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52425-8_15
161