Monday, November 5, 2007
19-2

Soil Organic Matter at Different Elevations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Brian Lester1, Anthony Khiel2, and Doug Thomas2. (1) University of Tennessee Plant, Soil & Env. Club, 3722 Knoxville Hwy, Wartburg, TN 37887, (2) USDA-NRCS, 517 E. Bruce St, Sevierville, TN 37862

Located in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) contains elevations varying from 275 m to 2042 m. Two soil temperature regimes are present within the park: Mesic on the lower mountain slopes and valleys and Frigid on the upper slopes and peaks. The mesic-frigid boundary ranging between 1,280 m on northern aspects and 1,402 m on southern aspects. The objective of this study is to observe if organic matter increases with increasing elevation. Since the temperature regime field classification of a pedon is determined by the elevation of the site and mean annual soil temperature, two mesic soils and two frigid soils were used to represent a range of elevations. The total carbon data for each pedon was retrieved from the NRCS Soil Survey Laboratory. Total carbon was plotted to observe both total carbon as a function of profile depth and average total carbon of each pedon as a function of elevation. From the pedon data, the mean profile total carbon of each site is: Ditney (mesic) 0.73% at 394 m, Brasstown (mesic) 0.96% at 604 m, Breakneck (frigid) 3.15 at 1,454 m, and Pullback (frigid) 5.36% at 1926 m. Free carbonates are not present in any of the soil profiles. Total carbon increases with increasing elevation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.