SGS-LTER Paleopedology Study - soil particle size and grain size on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1992- 1993

This data package was produced by researchers
working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term
Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project,
administered at Colorado State University.
Long-term datasets and background information
(proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the
SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive
project collection within the Digital Collections
of Colorado
(http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429).
The data table and associated metadata document,
which is generated in Ecological Metadata
Language, may be available through other
repositories serving the ecological research
community and represent components of the larger
SGS-LTER project collection. CPER Paleopedology Study – Particle and Grain
Size - Grain size data from 39 pedons were
compared with modal fluvial (7) and eolian (3)
samples in order to characterize the origin of
CPER parent materials and distinguish the origin
of CPER geomorphic features. The seven fluvial
sites were located along Owl and Eastman Creeks.
The three eolian sites were located on the nearest
undisputed dune fields located approximately 5 km
north of Roggen, CO (Muhs, 1985). For statistical
analysis, the sand and coarse silt fractions were
shaken in a nest of half phi(0) interval sieves
ranging from -1.0 0 (10 mesh) to 4.5 0 (325 mesh)
for 3 minutes. Phi intervals (-log2) were utilized
to normalize the particle size data for use in
conventional statistics (Krumbein, 1934). The silt
and clay fractions were separated by sedimentation
using the pipette method. Statistical methods
adopted from Folk and Ward (1957) were applied to
the -1.0 0 to 7.0 0 fractions using the
Sedimentary Petrology Computer Program SEDPET
(Warner, 1970) to determine mean grain size (Mz),
sorting (Iz), skewness (Skz), and kurtosis (Kz).
These parameters were then subjected to univariate
and bivariate analysis. The clay fraction was not
included in the statistical computations to avoid
excessively fine skewing the sample. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/85625.