Fig. 1. Location of the Mt. Mansfield study site: (A) the northeastern United States with major alpine areas including Mt. Mansfield (circled MM) and Camels Hump (CH) in Vermont, the Adirondack Mountains (AD) in New York, the White Mountains (WM) in New Hampshire and Maine, and the Longfellow Mountains (LM) and Mt. Katahdin (MK) in Maine; (B) the topography of Mt. Mansfield (50-m contours) and the major trails on the mountain. The arrow points to the study area on the West Chin (area highlighted in Fig. 4). The elevation of the summit is 1337 m.
Fig. 2. Relationship between soil organic C content and bulk density (BD). Oa horizons are filled diamonds; A horizons, open squares; B horizons, filled triangles; E horizon, filled circle; AC horizons, filled squares; Cr horizons, open diamonds. Inset illustrates the strong linear relationship between organic matter content determined via loss-on-ignition and total C determined by a CN analyzer.
Fig. 4. Distribution of measured soil thickness in the study area based on 303 individual probings with a graduated steel rod. Deeper soils tend to found in isolated pockets, while shallower soils cluster in more contiguous areas. The central swath was intentionally skipped to avoid measuring soils potentially impacted by foot traffic along a major hiking trail.
Fig. 5. Mean soil thickness (with 1 error bars) arranged by vegetation community. Carex and Vaccinium are the two most dominant vegetation types, making up nearly 50% of the study area; however, there is no significant difference in the mean thickness of their underlying soils.
error bars) arranged by vegetation community. Carex and Vaccinium are the two most dominant vegetation types, making up nearly 50% of the study area; however, there is no significant difference in the mean thickness of their underlying soils.