{{Short description|Soil type; fertile black-coloured soil}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox soil |name = Chernozem |alternative_name = Chernozemic soil |type = |type_link = |image = Image:Mollisol.jpg |image_size = 250px |image_caption = Mollisol (USDA-NRCS) |classification_system = WRB, other |profile = AhBC |parent_material = Loess |code = CH |climate = Humid continental }}
'''Chernozem''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|ɜːr|n|ə|z|ɛ|m}} {{respell|CHUR-nə-zem}}),{{efn|{{lang-rus|Чернозём|p=tɕɪrnɐˈzʲɵm|r=Černozjom}}; {{langx|uk|Чорнозем|Chornozem}}; {{lit|black ground}}.<ref name="Etymon">{{cite web |title=Origin and history of chernozem |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/chernozem |access-date=28 November 2025 |website=www.etymonline.com |language=en }}</ref>}} also called '''black soil''', '''black earth''', '''dark earth''', '''regur soil''' or '''black cotton soil''', is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus<ref name="Webster">{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chernozem |title=Chernozem |access-date=28 November 2025 |year=2008 |work=Merriam-Webster online dictionary }}</ref> (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compounds.<ref>{{cite web |last=McAleese |first=John |title=How chemical pre-treatments in particle size analysis impact wind erosion modeling |url=https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=20616 |access-date=28 November 2025 |work=AZoM.com |date=28 July 2021 |language=en }}</ref> Chernozem is very fertile and can produce high agricultural yields with its high moisture-storage capacity. However, prolonged agricultural use of chernozems still require replenishment with fertilizers because they easily can get depleted of nutrients through continuous decrease in humus content.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dzanagov |first1=Sozyrko Khasanbekovich |last2=Lazarov |first2=Taimuraz Konstantinovich |last3=Basiev |first3=Aslan Eseevich |last4=Kanukov |first4=Zaurbek Tamerlanovich |last5=Khadikov |first5=Arthur Yurievich |date=June 2014 |title=Influence of sustained fertilization on the amount of humus and effective fertility of leached chernozem |journal=American-Eurasian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture |volume=8 |issue=9 |pages=35–40 |url=https://www.aensiweb.net/AENSIWEB/aejsa/aejsa/June%202014/35-40.pdf |access-date=28 November 2025 }}</ref> Chernozems are a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). Chernozem is commonly found throughout the steppes of Russia and Ukraine, the American and Canadian Great Plains, and the South American Pampas according to most recent studies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lal |first=Rattan |editor-last1=Dent |editor-first1=David |editor-last2=Boincean |editor-first2=Boris |title=Regenerative agriculture. What’s missing? What do we still need to know? |date=21 June 2021 |publisher=Springer Nature |location=Cham, Switzerland |isbn=978-3-030-72224-1 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lal-2021 |language=en |chapter=Managing chernozem for reducing global warming |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-72224-1_7 |access-date=3 March 2026 |pages=81–93 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Deckers |first1=Jozef |last2=Gerasimova |first2=Maria |last3=Kabala |first3=Cezary |last4=Kravchenko |first4=Yuriy |last5=Nachtergaele |first5=Freddy |url=https://ees.kuleuven.be/soil-monoliths/wrb-documentation-centre/wrb-reference-soil-groups/CHERNOZEMS-Lecture-notes.pdf |title=Chernozem lecture notes |access-date=4 March 2026 |year=2024 |website=WRB Documentation Centre, KU Leuven |location=Leuven, Belgium }}</ref>
==Etymology== The name comes from the Russian terms for black (чёрный ''čjornyj'') and soil, earth or land (земля ''zemlja'').<ref name="Etymon"/><ref name="Webster"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Allaby |first=Michael |title=A dictionary of plant sciences |date=21 March 2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |isbn=978-0-19-883333-8 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198833338.001.0001/acref-9780198833338-e-1358 |language=en |chapter=chernozem (black earth) |quote=A freely draining soil profile whose name is the Russian word for ‘black earth’ |access-date=1 December 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Speake |first1=Jennifer |last2=LaFlaur |first2=Mark |title=The Oxford essential dictionary of foreign terms in English |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199891573.001.0001/acref-9780199891573-e-1241 |language=en |chapter=chernozem (also chernosem) |access-date=1 December 2025 }}</ref>
== Distribution == [[File:Chernozem map.svg|thumb|Distribution of chernozem soils according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification: {{legend|#d95f0e|Dominant (more than 50% of soil cover)}} {{legend|#fec44f|Codominant (25–50%)}} {{legend|#fff7bc|Associated (5–25%)}}]]
Studies of the steppe soils of the Poltava region in the Russian Empire in 1883, conducted by geologist Vasily Dokuchaev, showed that the peasants called all soils by color, so the scientist began to use such names.<ref>Бережняк М.Ф. [https://knushop.com.ua/image/catalog/lira20230617/pdf/12511.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOopUI6DvjmPLYiV0pnAYEo2ZhqkRShGmZllZ8iRFosM3P89Jkjjk/ Ґрунтознавство]: Навч. посіб. /М.Ф. Бережняк, Б.Є. Якубенко, А.М. Чурілов, Р.В. Сендзюк. // За заг. ред. Якубенка Б.Є. – К.: Видавництво Ліра-К, 2017. – 612 с. ISBN 978-617-7507-96-2</ref> Chernozem was black in color due to its large amount of soil organic matter. Dokuchaev was the first to describe the chernozem of the European part of the Russian Empire, and discovered its fertility.<ref name="Dokuchaev1883"<ref>{{cite book |last=Dokuchaev |first=Vasily Vasilyevich |url=https://fr.scribd.com/doc/206859253/Russian-Chernozem |title=Russian chernozem (1883). Selected works of V.V. Dokuchaev, translated in English by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations |year=1967 |publisher=Israel Program for Scientific Translations |location=Jerusalem, Israel |access-date=28 November 2025 }}</ref> Although distinctly classified due to its high content of iron and aluminium oxides chernozem shares many chemical and physical properties with the terra preta of the Amazon rainforest, also called Amazonian dark earths.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Asare |first=Michael O. |journal=European Journal of Soil Science |volume=73 |issue=5 |article-number=e13308 |title=Anthropogenic dark earth: evolution, distribution, physical, and chemical properties |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363772131 |date=September–October 2022 |doi=10.1111/ejss.13308 |bibcode=2022EuJSS..73E3308A |access-date=28 November 2025 }}</ref>
Chernozem covers about 230 million hectares of land. There are two "chernozem belts" in the world. One is the Eurasian Steppe that extends from eastern Croatia (Slavonia), along the Danubian Plain (northern Serbia, northern Bulgaria), southern and eastern Romania (Wallachian Plain and Moldavian Plain), and Moldova, to northeast Ukraine across the Central Black Earth Region of Central and Southern Russia into Siberia.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Khitrov |first1=Nikolay |last2=Smirnova |first2=Maria |last3=Lozbenev |first3=Nikolai |last4=Levchenko |first4=Ekaterina |last5=Gribov |first5=Vasiliy |last6=Kozlov |first6=Daniil |last7=Rukhovich |first7=Dimitriy |last8=Kalinina |first8=Natalia |last9=Koroleva |first9=Polina |date=September 2019 |title=Soil cover patterns in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the East European Plain |journal=Soil Science Annual |language=en |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=198–210 |doi=10.2478/ssa-2019-0018 |issn=2300-4975 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2019SSAnn..70..198K }}</ref> The other stretches from the Canadian Prairies in Manitoba through the Great Plains of the United States as far south as Kansas.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hartemink |first=Alfred E. |title=Pedology in the USA: life and Works of C. C. Nikiforoff (1886–1979) |year=2025 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-032-00332-4 |editor-last=Hartemink |editor-first=Alfred E. |edition=1st |location=Cham, Switzerland |pages=185–208 |chapter=Chernozems, carbon, climate |doi=10.1017/9781108937795 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/hartemink-2025 |access-date=8 November 2025 }}</ref>
Chernozem layer thickness may vary widely, from several centimetres up to 1.5 metres (60 inches) in Ukraine,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Yerofeyev |first=Ivan Alekseyevich |title=Ukraine |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine |access-date=1 December 2025 |encyclopedia=Britannica |date=30 November 2025 |language=en }}</ref> as well as the Red River Valley region in the northern United States and Canada (location of the prehistoric Lake Agassiz).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Michalyna |first1=W. |last2=Rust |first2=R. H. |date=November 1984 |title=Influence of drainage regime on the chemistry and morphology of some Manitoba soils: clayey chernozemic and gleysolic soils of the Red River Plain |journal=Canadian Journal of Soil Science |language=en |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=605–20 |doi=10.4141/cjss84-061 |issn=1918-1841 |doi-access=free |bibcode=1984CaJSS..64..605M }}</ref>
The terrain can also be found in small quantities elsewhere (for example, in 1% of Poland, Hungary, and Texas). It also exists in Northeast China, near Harbin.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ba |first1=Zhidan |last2=Wang |first2=Jingfa |last3=Song |first3=Chunwei |last4=Du |first4=Huishi |date=July–August 2022 |title=Spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients in black soil areas of Northeast China |journal=Agronomy Journal |language=en |volume=114 |issue=4 |pages=2021–6 |doi=10.1002/agj2.20985 |bibcode=2022AgrJ..114.2021B |issn=1435-0645 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357141352 |access-date=1 December 2025 }}</ref> The only true chernozem in Australia is located around Nimmitabel, some of the richest soils on the continent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McQueen |first1=K. G. |title=The Tertiary geology and geomorphology of the Monaro: the perspective in 1994 |date=October 1994 |publisher=Centre for Australian Regolith Studies |location=Canberra, Australia |isbn=9780858894365 |url=https://regolith.org.au/docs/cars/carspub2.pdf |language=en |access-date=1 December 2025 }}</ref>
Previously, there was a black market for the soil in Ukraine. The sale of agricultural land was illegal in Ukraine from 1992 to 2020,<ref>{{cite web |title=Ukraine lifts ban on sale of farmland in bid to receive international funds |url=https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/31/ukraine-lifts-ban-on-sale-of-farmland-in-bid-to-receive-international-funds |website=Euronews |date=31 March 2020 |access-date=1 December 2025 }}</ref> but the soil, transported by truck, could be traded legally. According to the Kharkiv-based Green Front NGO, the black market for illegally acquired chernozem in Ukraine was projected to reach approximately USD$900 million per year in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black market for rich black earth |last=Kraznozhon |first=Leo |url=https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/black-market-for-rich-black-earth-116610.html |website=Kyiv Post |date=9 November 2011 |access-date=1 December 2025 }}</ref>
== Canadian and United States soil classification ==
'''Chernozemic soils''' are a soil type in the Canadian system of soil classification and the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB).
Chernozemic soil type "equivalents", in the Canadian system, WRB, and U.S. Department of Agriculture soil taxonomy:
{| |-style="border-bottom:1px solid black;" ! align=left style="border-bottom:1px solid black;" | Canadian ! align=left style="border-bottom:1px solid black;" | WRB ! align=left style="border-bottom:1px solid black;" | United States |- | [http://www.soilsofcanada.ca/orders/chernozemic-soils.php Chernozemic] | Kastanozem, Chernozem, Phaeozem | Mollisol |- | Brown Chernozem | Kastanozem (Aridic) | Aridic Mollisol subgroups (Xerolls and Ustolls) |- | Dark Brown Chernozem | Haplic Kastanozem | Typic Mollisol subgroups |- | Black Chernozem | Chernozem | Udic Mollisol subgroups |- | Dark Grey Chernozem | Greyzemic Phaeozem | Boralfic Mollisol subgroups, Albolls |- |Source: Canadian system of soil classification (third edition)<ref>{{cite web |title=Correlation of Canadian Soil Taxonomy with other systems |url=https://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/taxa/cssc3/chpt16.html |website=Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada |date=17 July 2013 |access-date=1 December 2025 }}</ref> |}
== Theories of chernozem origin ==
* 1763: Mikhail Lomonosov (plant and animal decomposition)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lomonosov |first1=Mikhail Vasil’evich |title=On the strata of the Earth (1763). A translation of О Слояхъ Земныхъ by Stephen M. Rowland and Slava Korolev |date=1 July 2012 |publisher=Geological Society of America |location=Boulder, Colorado |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o5x3jgEACAAJ&pg=PA24 |doi=10.1130/SPE485 |page=24 |isbn=978-0-8137-2485-0 |access-date=2 December 2025 |quote="And so, there is no doubt that black soil is not primordial matter, but that it has been produced by the decomposition of animal and plant bodies over time" }}</ref> * 1840: Sir Roderick Murchison (weathered from Jurassic marine shales)<ref>{{cite book |last=Geikie |first=Archibald |title=Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, based on his journals and letters |volume=1 |year=1875 |publisher=John Murray |location=London, United Kingdom |url=https://dn720700.ca.archive.org/0/items/bwb_S0-DRB-138/bwb_S0-DRB-138.pdf |access-date=3 December 2025 |quote="I end, therefore, in believing that this black earth is the last covering of mud and slime which was left by the retirement of the Liassic sea, and was to a great extent derived from the wearing away of the shales of the Jurassic strata" }}</ref> * 1850: Karl Eichwald (lake sediments)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fedotova |first=Anastasia A. |date=August 2010 |title=The origins of the Russian chernozem soil (black earth): Franz Joseph Ruprecht's 'Geo-Botanical Researches into the Chernozem' of 1866 |journal=Environment and History |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=271–293 |jstor=20723789 |doi=10.3197/096734010x519762 |bibcode=2010EnHis..16..271F |url=https://www.environmentandsociety.org/sites/default/files/key_docs/eh163_fedotova.pdf |access-date=3 December 2025 |quote="The geologist Karl Eduard von. Eichwald, who worked at Dorpat University in Russian Livonia, connected the origins of chernozem with lake sediments" }}</ref> * 1851: Alexander Petzgold (marine sediments)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Krasilnikov |first1=Pavel |last2=Sorokin |first2=Aleksey |title=Classification of black soils, chernozems and chernozem-like soils |work=International scientific conference "Eastern European chernozems 140 years after V. Dokuchaev", 2–3 October 2019, Chisinau, Moldova |url=https://ibn.idsi.md/sites/default/files/imag_file/131-136_6.pdf |access-date=3 December 2025 |quote="Before this publication black soils of South-Eastern Europe were regarded either as marine sediments (e.g. the theories of R. Murchinson and A. Petzgold) or dried peat lands (e.g. E.I. Eichwald, F.F. Wangenheim and some others)" }}</ref> * 1866: Franz Josef Ruprecht (decomposed steppe grasses)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fedotova |first=Anastasia A. |date=August 2010 |title=The origins of the Russian chernozem soil (black earth): Franz Joseph Ruprecht's 'Geo-Botanical Researches into the Chernozem' of 1866 |journal=Environment and History |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=271–293 |jstor=20723789 |doi=10.3197/096734010x519762 |bibcode=2010EnHis..16..271F |url=https://www.environmentandsociety.org/sites/default/files/key_docs/eh163_fedotova.pdf |access-date=3 December 2025 |quote="Thus, the chernozem was of steppe origins, not forest or peat as had been assumed by most scientists prior to his researches" }}</ref> * 1879: First chernozem papers translated from Russian<ref>{{cite book |last=Dokuchaev |first=Vasily Vasilyevich |title=Tchernozéme (terre noire) de la Russie d'Europe |year=1879 |language=fr |publisher=Société Impériale Libre Économique |location=Saint Petersburg, Russia |url=https://archive.org/details/CAT10731824/page/n5/mode/2up |access-date=4 December 2025 }}</ref> * 1883: Vasily Dokuchaev published his book ''Russian Chernozem'' with a complete study of this soil in European Russia.<ref name="Dokuchaev1883"/> * 1929: Otto Schlüter (man-made)<ref name="Eckmeier2007">{{cite journal |first1=Eileen |last1=Eckmeier |first2=Renate |last2=Gerlach |first3=Ernst |last3=Gehrt |first4=Michael W.I. |last4=Schmidt |title=Pedogenesis of chernozems in Central Europe: a review |journal=Geoderma |volume=139 |issue=3–4 |date=15 May 2007 |pages=288–99 |doi=10.1016/j.geoderma.2007.01.009 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222673118 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308210844/http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~mschmidt/downloads/Eckmeier_Geoderma_2007.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2016 |bibcode=2007Geode.139..288E |access-date=4 December 2025 }}</ref> * 1999: Michael W. I. Schmidt (neolithic biomass burning)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=Michael W. I. |last2=Skjemstad |first2=Jan O. |last3=Jäger |first3=Cornelia |date=December 2002 |title=Carbon isotope geochemistry and nanomorphology of soil black carbon: black chernozemic soils in central Europe originate from ancient biomass burning |journal=Global Biogeochemical Cycles |volume=16 |issue=4 |doi=10.1029/2002GB001939 |quote="These data challenge the common paradigm that chernozems are zonal soils with climate, parent material and bioturbation dominating soil formation, and introduce fire as a novel, important factor in the formation of these soils" |bibcode=2002GBioC..16.1123S |pages=70-1–70-8 |s2cid=56045817 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Eckmeier|first1=Eileen |title=Detecting prehistoric fire-based farming using biogeochemical markers |year=2007 |publisher=University of Zurich, Faculty of Science |location=Zurich, Switzerland |doi=10.5167/uzh-3752 |quote="It is now an open question as to whether Neolithic settlers did indeed prefer to grow crops where chernozems occurred or if Neolithic burning formed the chernozemic soils" |doi-access=free }}</ref>
As seen in the list above, the 19th and 20th-century discussions on the pedogenesis of chernozem originally stemmed from climatic conditions from the early Holocene to roughly 5500 BC. However, no single paleoclimate reconstruction could accurately explain geochemical variations found in chernozems throughout central Europe. Evidence of anthropic origins of stable pyrogenic carbon in chernozem led to improved formation theories.<ref name="Eckmeier2007"/> Vegetation burning could explain chernozem's high magnetic susceptibility,<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Eileen |last1=Eckmeier |first2=Renate |last2=Gerlach |first3=Ernst |last3=Gehrt |first4=Michael W.I. |last4=Schmidt |title=Pedogenesis of chernozems in Central Europe: a review |journal=Geoderma |volume=139 |issue=3–4 |date=15 May 2007 |pages=288–99 |doi=10.1016/j.geoderma.2007.01.009 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222673118 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308210844/http://www.geo.unizh.ch/~mschmidt/downloads/Eckmeier_Geoderma_2007.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2016 |bibcode=2007Geode.139..288E |access-date=4 December 2025 |quote="magnetic susceptibility of soil material may reflect past fires" }}</ref> the highest of the major soil types.<ref name="Jordanova2017">{{cite book |title=Soil magnetism: applications in pedology, environmental science and agriculture |editor-first=Neli |editor-last=Jordanova |year=2017 |chapter=The discriminating power of soil magnetism for the characterization of different soil types |chapter-url=https://z-library.ec/book/96816542/54c195 |pages=349–65 |doi=10.1016/B978-0-12-809239-2.00008-5 |isbn=978-0-12-809239-2 |publisher=Academic Press |location=Amsterdam, The Netherlands |access-date=4 December 2025 |quote="Chernozem soils exhibit similar features worldwide and are generally characterized by significant magnetic enhancement in the upper soil horizons" }}</ref> Soil magnetism increases when soil minerals goethite and ferrihydrite convert to maghemite on exposure to heat.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/27894063 |doi=10.1180/0009855043910122 |title=Mineralogy of a burned soil compared with four anomalously red Quaternary deposits in Denmark |date=March 2004 |last1=Nørnberg |first1=Per |last2=Schwertmann |first2=Udo |last3=Stanjek |first3=Helge |last4=Andersen |first4=Tom |last5=Gunnlaugsson |first5=Haraldur Páll |journal=Clay Minerals |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=85–98 |doi-broken-date=4 January 2026 |bibcode=2004ClMin..39...85N |s2cid=129974901 |access-date=4 December 2025 }}</ref> Temperatures sufficient to elevate maghemite on a landscape scale indicate the influence of fire. Given the rarity of such natural phenomena in the modern day, magnetic susceptibility in chernozem likely relates to control of fire by early humans.<ref name="Jordanova2017"/>
Humification can darken soils (melanization) even in the absence of a pyrogenic carbon component.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://z-library.ec/book/41171424/60f656 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2389.1991.tb00426.x |title=Factors affecting the formation of dark, thick epipedons beneath forest vegetation, Michigan, USA |date=September 1991 |last=Schaetzel |first=Randall J. |journal=European Journal of Soil Science |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=501–12 |bibcode=1991EuJSS..42..501S |access-date=4 December 2025 }}</ref> However, charcoal, also called black carbon when in the form of fine carbon particles, has been shown to be a prominent component of grassland soils in the Russian Steppe, the U.S. Great Plains, the Argentinian Pampa, the Manchurian Plains in China, and the Chernozem region in central Germany.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rodionov |first1=Andrej |last2=Amelung |first2=Wulf |last3=Peinemann |first3=Norman |last4=Haumaier |first4=Ludwig |last5=Zhang |first5=Xudong |last6=Kleber |first6=Markus |last7=Glaser |first7=Bruno |last8=Urusevskaya |first8=Inga |last9=Zech |first9=Wolfgang |date=September 2010 |title=Black carbon in grassland ecosystems of the world |journal=Global Biogeochemical Cycles |language=en |volume=24 |issue=3 |article-number=GB3013 |doi=10.1029/2009GB003669 |issn=0886-6236 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2010GBioC..24.3013R }}</ref> Given the symphony of pedogenic processes that contribute to the formation of dark earths, chernozem summarizes different types of black soils with the same appearance but different formation histories.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vysloužilová |first1=Barbora |last2=Ertlen |first2=Damien |last3=Schwartz |first3=Dominique |last4=Šefrna |first4=Luděk |date=22 June 2016 |title=Chernozem. From concept to classification: a review |journal=Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Geographica |language=en |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=85–95 |doi=10.14712/23361980.2016.8 |issn=0300-5402 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
== See also == * Loam * Dark earth * Terra preta * Vertisol * Mollisol * Soil organic matter
== Notes == {{Notelist}}
== References == * IUSS Working Group WRB: World Reference Base for Soil Resources, fourth edition. International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna 2022. {{ISBN|979-8-9862451-1-9}} ([https://files.isric.org/public/documents/WRB_fourth_edition_2022-12-18.pdf]).
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * W. Zech, P. Schad, G. Hintermaier-Erhard: Soils of the World. Springer, Berlin 2022, Chapter 5.3.2. {{ISBN|978-3-540-30460-9}}
== External links == {{Commons category|Chernozem}} {{Wiktionary|chernozem}} * [https://wrb.isric.org/picture-gallery/ profile photos (with classification)] WRB homepage * [https://www.iuss.org/index.php?article_id=73 IUSS profile photos (with classification)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180909150525/https://www.iuss.org/index.php?article_id=73 |date=9 September 2018 }} IUSS World of Soils
{{Soil type}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Canadian Prairies Category:Geology of Canada Category:Geology of Russia Category:Geology of the United States Category:Geology of Ukraine Category:Great Plains Category:Pedology Category:Types of soil