Chernozem - wikipedia Chernozem Chernozem Chernozemic soil Chernozem field in Black Dirt Region of Orange County, New York, United States Used in WRB, other WRB code CH Profile AhBC Parent material Loess Climate Humid continental Look up chernozem in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Chernozem ( Russian : чернозё́м, tr. chernozyóm, IPA : ( tɕɪrnɐˈzjɵm ), Ukrainian : чорно́зем, translit. chornózem, translated as `` black soil, dirt or earth '' ) is a black - coloured soil containing a high percentage of humus ( 7 % to 15 % ), and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia. Chernozem is very fertile and can produce high agricultural yields. Contents 1 Distribution 2 Canadian and United Nations soil classification 3 History 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Distribution Global distribution There are two `` chernozem belts '' in the world : the Eurasian steppe which extends from eastern Croatia ( Slavonia ), along the Danube ( northern Serbia, northern Bulgaria ( Danubian Plain ), southern Romania ( Wallachian Plain ) and Moldova ) to northeast Ukraine across the Black Earth Region and southern Russia into Siberia, and the other from the Canadian Prairies in Manitoba through the Great Plains of the United States as far south as Kansas. Similar soil types occur in Texas and Hungary. Chernozem layer thickness may vary widely, from several inches up to 60 inches ( 1.5 metres ) in Ukraine. The terrain can also be found in small quantities elsewhere ( for example, on 1 % of Poland ). It also exists in Northeast China, near Harbin. The only true chernozem in Australia is located around Nimmitabel producing some of the richest soils in the nation. The sale of agricultural land has been illegal in Ukraine since 1992, but there is a black market for chernozem soil, transported by the truckload, with approximately US $900 million in annual sales. Canadian and United Nations soil classification 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 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 Source : Pedosphere.com. History Theories of chernozem origin : 1761 -- Johan Gottschalk Wallerius ( plant decomposition ) 1763 -- Mikhail Lomonosov ( plant and animal decomposition ) 1799 -- Peter Simon Pallas ( reeds marsh ) 1835 -- Charles Lyell ( loess ) 1840 -- Sir Roderick Murchison ( weathered from Jurassic marine shales ) 1850 -- Karl Eichwald ( peat ) 1851 -- А. Petzgold ( swamps ) 1852 -- Nikifor Borisyak ( peat ) 1853 -- Vangengeim von Qualen ( silt from northern swamps ) 1862 -- Rudolf Ludwig ( bog on place of forests ) 1866 -- Franz Josef Ruprecht ( decomposed steppe grasses ) 1879 -- First chernozem papers translated from Russian 1883 -- Vasily Dokuchaev published book `` Russian Chernozem '' with complete study of this soil in European part of Russia. 1929 -- Otto Schlüter ( man - made ) 1999 -- Michael W.I Schmidt ( ancient biomass burning ) See also Dark earth Terra preta References Jump up ^ `` chernozem ''. Merriam - Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Retrieved 2008 - 07 - 07. Jump up ^ Ecology of Arable Land - Perspectives and Challenges by M. Clarholm and L. Bergström ISBN 978 - 94 - 010 - 6950 - 2 Jump up ^ Ukraine : Soils in Encyclopædia Britannica Jump up ^ KG McQueen `` The Tertiary Geology And Geomorphology Of The Monaro : The Perspective In 1994 '' ( 1 ) Centre For Australian Regolith Studies, Canberra 1994 Jump up ^ Black market for rich black earth, Kyiv Post ( 9 November 2011 ) Jump up ^ Wallerius J.G. Agriculturae fundamenta chemica, åkerbrukets chemiska grunder. Upsaliae, 1761. 8, 4, 322 p. ; The natural and chemical elements of agriculture. London, York : Bell, Etherington, 1770. 198 p. Jump up ^ Lomonosov M.V. § 125. / / On the strata of the Earth : a translation of `` O sloiakh zemnykh '' ( 1763 ) / translated by S.M. Rowland, S. Korolev. Boulder : Geological Soc. of America, 2012. 41 p. ( Special paper ; 485 ) `` 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 '' ^ Jump up to : Geikie, A. ( 1875 ), Life of Sir Roderick I, Murchison, 1, ASIN B0095632AU Jump up ^ Fedotova, Anastasia A. ( August 2010 ), `` The Origins of the Russian Chernozem Soil ( Black Earth ) : Franz Joseph Ruprecht 's ' Geo - Botanical Researches into the Chernozem ' of 1866 '', Environment and History, White House Press, 16 ( 3 ) : 271 -- 293, JSTOR 20723789 Jump up ^ Dokoutchaief B. Tchernozème ( terre noire ) de la Russie d'Europe. St. - Ptb. : Soc. Imp. libre économ., 1879. 66 p. ( Comptes - rendus Soc. Imp. libre économ. T. 4 ). Jump up ^ Dokuchaev V.V. Russian Chernozem ( 1883 ) / / Israel Program for Scientific Translations Ltd. ( for USDA - NSF ), S. Monson, Jerusalem, 1967. ( Translated from Russian into English by N. Kaner ) ^ Jump up to : Eckmeier, Eileen ; Gerlach, Renate ; Gehrt, Ernst ; Schmidt, Michael W.I. ( 2007 ), `` Pedogenesis of Chernozems in Central Europe -- A review '' ( PDF ), Geoderma, Elsevier B.V., 139 : 288 -- 299, doi : 10.1016 / j. geoderma. 2007.01. 009 Jump up ^ Schmidt, M.W.I. ; Skjemstad, J.O. ; Jäger, C. ( 2002 ), `` Carbon isotope geochemistry and nanomorphology of soil black carbon : Black chernozemic soils in central Europe originate from ancient biomass burning '', Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 16 ( 4 ), doi : 10.1029 / 2002GB001939, 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 Jump up ^ Eckmeier, E. ( 2007 ), Detecting prehistoric fire - based farming using biogeochemical markers, University of Zurich, Faculty of Science., doi : 10.5167 / uzh - 3752, 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. External links Soil classification USDA soil taxonomy Alfisols Andisols Aridisols Entisols Gelisols Histosols Inceptisols Mollisols Oxisols Spodosols Ultisols Vertisols World Reference Base for Soil Resources ( 1998 -- ) Acrisols Albeluvisols Alisols Andosols Anthrosols Arenosols Calcisols Cambisols Chernozem Cryosols Durisols Ferralsols Fluvisols Gleysols Gypsisols Histosol Kastanozems Leptosols Lixisols Luvisols Nitisols Phaeozems Planosols Plinthosols Podzols Regosols Solonchaks Solonetz Stagnosol Technosols Umbrisols Vertisols Other systems FAO soil classification ( 1974 -- 98 ) Unified Soil Classification System AASHTO Soil Classification System Référentiel pédologique ( French classification system ) Canadian system of soil classification Australian Soil Classification Polish Soil Classification 1938 USDA soil taxonomy List of U.S. state soils List of vineyard soil types Types of soil Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chernozem. Pedosphere.com The dictionary definition of chernozem at Wiktionary Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chernozem&oldid=797448595 '' Categories : Pedology Types of soil Great Plains Geology of Canada Geology of Russia Geology of the United States Geology of Ukraine Eurasia Canadian Prairies Chernozemye Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2010 Pages using Infobox soil with deprecated parameters Articles containing Russian - language text Articles containing Ukrainian - language text Articles with unsourced statements from January 2012 Use dmy dates from April 2017 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Беларуская Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Hrvatski Italiano Қазақша Lietuvių Magyar Македонски Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча Polski Português Română Русский Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 27 August 2017, at 03 : 28. 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Question: the chernozem soil in the steppe region is
Answer: a black-coloured soil containing a high percentage of humus[1] (7% to 15%), and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia