Web Soil Survey Information

I'm a novice when it comes to soils and soil information. I know the basics, but have never had to assess soil content or anything similar in any parts of my career. I understand the value of knowing soils and soil attributes in certain settings and job fields and the benefits this information can provide when dealing with agriculture for example.

I began my exploration of the Web Soil Survey by accessing USDAs website, poking around a bit, then opening up the actual WSS interface to explore my AOI (area of interest). 

I uploaded GIS files to delineate my AOI, which worked exceptionally well.

I uploaded the entire base perimeter for the AOI (upper photo), and then zoomed in on Mainside Quantico for the lower photo.

I think I've mentioned in previous posts, but I find immediate intrigue in these maps because I want to see if I can use them to hone in on locations for Morel mushrooms that may (or may not) be found on the base. I'm jumping ahead, but I also decided to download this soil data for use with GIS' spatial analyst tools to find where my vegetation layers and the soil layers overlap, and target those areas for searching.

In the tab entitled "Intro to Soils", I found it extremely helpful to see the range of topics listed and the wealth of information listed under each subsection. Below, I've included a photo of just some of the topics covered on this page.

Under the next tab, Suitabilities and Limitations for Use, I found this section to be very difficult to understand. There are "?" tabs as well as "View Description" tabs that provide more information in each section, but I found myself confused on how 'ratings' were classified within a section and what each rating meant.

I watched the recommended YouTube tutorial video, but I felt like this was more of an intro of how to use the WSS interface than the components within. It did seem to be geared to a class that may already have an understanding of Soil Science and the terminology within the website.

An important concept I did retain from tutorial is to keep in mind the purpose of the WSS tool - to provide coarse information for broad-scale projects. For on the ground, site-specific applications (depending on what is needed), it may require soil-core samples from your site location in order to accurately determine soil properties within the AOI.

On Quantico, the Federally Endangered Small Whorled Pogonia (Isotria medeoloides) exists on the base in site-specific areas. I could possibly use the WSS and point locations from our surveys to identify areas of potential SWP habitat and search for new locations on the installation. I may be able to use the methods mentioned above, identifying forest-type and soil type of known locations, and search for similar areas of overlapping layers in efforts to find more populations on the base.