Studies of thesteppe soils of thePoltava region in theRussian Empire in 1883, conducted by geologistVasily Dokuchaev, showed that the peasants called all soils by color, so the scientist began to use such names.[7] Chernozem was black in color due to its large amount ofsoil organic matter. Dokuchaev was the first to describe the chernozem of the European part of theRussian Empire, and discovered its fertility.[8] Although distinctly classified due to its high content ofiron andaluminium oxides chernozem shares many chemical and physical properties with theterra preta of theAmazon rainforest, also called Amazonian dark earths.[9]
Chernozem layer thickness may vary widely, from several centimetres up to 1.5 metres (60 inches) in Ukraine,[12] as well as theRed River Valley region in the northern United States and Canada (location of the prehistoricLake Agassiz).[13]
Theterrain can also be found in small quantities elsewhere (for example, in 1% of Poland, Hungary, and Texas). It also exists inNortheast China, nearHarbin.[14] The only true chernozem in Australia is located aroundNimmitabel, some of the richest soils on the continent.[15]
Previously, there was ablack market for the soil inUkraine. The sale ofagricultural land was illegal in Ukraine from 1992 to 2020,[16] but the soil, transported by truck, could be traded legally. According to theKharkiv-based Green FrontNGO, the black market for illegally acquired chernozem in Ukraine was projected to reach approximately US$900 million per year in 2011.[17]
1999: Michael W. I. Schmidt (neolithic biomass burning)[26][27]
As seen in the list above, the 19th and 20th-century discussions on thepedogenesis of chernozem originally stemmed from climatic conditions from the earlyHolocene to roughly 5500 BC. However, no singlepaleoclimate reconstruction could accurately explaingeochemical variations found in chernozems throughout central Europe. Evidence of anthropic origins of stablepyrogenic carbon in chernozem led to improved formation theories.[25] Vegetation burning could explain chernozem's highmagnetic susceptibility,[28] the highest of the major soil types.[29] Soilmagnetism increases when soil mineralsgoethite andferrihydrite convert tomaghemite on exposure to heat.[30] 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 tocontrol of fire by early humans.[29]
Humification can darken soils (melanization) even in the absence of a pyrogenic carbon component.[31] However,charcoal, also calledblack carbon when in the form of fine carbon particles, has been shown to be a prominent component of grassland soils in theRussian Steppe, the U.S.Great Plains, the ArgentinianPampa, theManchurian Plains in China, and the Chernozem region incentral Germany.[32] Given the symphony ofpedogenic processes that contribute to the formation ofdark earths, chernozem summarizes different types of black soils with the same appearance but different formation histories.[33]
IUSS Working Group WRB: World Reference Base for Soil Resources, fourth edition. International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna 2022.ISBN979-8-9862451-1-9 ([1]).
^Geikie, Archibald (1875).Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, based on his journals and letters(PDF). Vol. 1. London, United Kingdom:John Murray. Retrieved3 December 2025.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
^Krasilnikov, Pavel; Sorokin, Aleksey."Classification of black soils, chernozems and chernozem-like soils"(PDF).International scientific conference "Eastern European chernozems 140 years after V. Dokuchaev", 2–3 October 2019, Chisinau, Moldova. Retrieved3 December 2025.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)
^Eckmeier, Eileen (2007).Detecting prehistoric fire-based farming using biogeochemical markers (Thesis). Zurich, Switzerland: 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
