chernozem

chernozem or black earth, variety of soil rich in organic matter in the form of humus. It is generally a modified type of loess. True chernozem is black in color, but there are various grades, shading off into gray and chestnut-brown soils. It forms in areas that have cold winters, hot summers, and rapid evaporation of precipitation; generally only tall grass is found native on chernozem. It has large quantities of nutrients, excellent structure, and good water-holding capacity, making it very suitable for agriculture. It is most widely distributed in Russia, where it forms a large part of the good agricultural soil, but soils similar to the Russian are also found in India and the central and N central United States.

Chernozem (чернозём, black soil), also known as "black land or "black earth", is a black-coloured soil containing a very high percentage of humus — 3% to 15%, and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia. Chernozem is very fertile and produces a high agricultural yield.

There are two "Chernozem belts" in the world: from Northeast Ukraine across the Black Earth Region and Southern Russia into Siberia, and in the Canadian Prairies. Similar soil types occur in Texas. It has a large depth, often more than 40 inches and up to 250 inches (6 metres) in Ukraine. The terrain can also be found in small quantities elsewhere (for example, on 1% of Polish territory).

Chernozemic soils are a soil type in the Canadian system of soil classification and the United Nations' FAO soil classification.

Chernozemic soil type equivalents, in Canadian, FAO, and USA soil taxonomy. Source: Pedosphere.com

Canadian	FAO	United States
Chernozemic	Kastanozem, Chernozem, Greyzem, Phaeozem	Borolls
Brown Chernozem	Kastanozem (aridic)	Aridic Boroll subgroups
Dark Brown Chernozem	Kastanozem (Haplic)	Typic Boroll subgroups
Black Chernozem	Chernozem	Udic Boroll subgroups
Dark Grey Chernozem	Greyzem	Boralfic Boroll subgroups, Albolls

References

External links

Pedosphere.com

See also

• Terra preta
• Dark earth