Difference between Wassents and Aquents

The differences between Wassents and Aquents are the soil moisture regime and use of the soils.

Wassents have a peraquic soil moisture regime while Aquents do not. The peraquic soil moisture regime occurs in soils which have ground water which is at or very close to the soil surface. Aquents are soils which may periodically be wet to the soil surface, but for much shorter time periods than Wassents. They typically have an aquic soil moisture regime during some portion of a year, but may also have another soil moisture regime (other than peraquic) for the balance of the year.

Wassents are soils which are covered with surface water for more than 21 hours of each day in all years. The presence of water on the soil surface (which may be up to 2.5 meters in depth) for such long periods has major impacts on the use of management of soil. Aquents do not have surface water meeting the same time limits as Wassents.