Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A very black topsoil, rich in humus, typical of cool to temperate semiarid regions such as the grasslands of Ukraine and southern Russia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The local name of a black earth of extraordinary fertility, covering at least 100,000,000 acres, from the Carpathian to the Ural mountains, to the depth of from 4 to 20 feet, and yielding an almost unlimited succession of similar crops without preparation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fertile black soil containing a very high percentage of humus (3% to 15%) and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus and ammonia.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian chernozëm : chërnyĭ, black + Old Russian zemĭ, earth; see dhghem- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Russian чернозём (černozjóm), "black soil", letter "ё" is usually written as "е" in Russian, more accurately transliterated as "chernozyom", also cf. Черноземье (Černozémʹje) where "ё" is changed to "е".

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Examples

  • Typical soils are chernozem (black soil) and chestnut (brown) soils, although they accumulate less humus than the same type of soils to the north and to the west.

    Kazakh steppe 2008

  • Composition also includes a high mesophyl umbellate (Peucedanum morisonii) on chernozem soils with microphyllous deciduous woods (Betula pendula, Populus tremula).

    Kazakh upland 2008

  • The zonal soil type is chernozem, and other common types are solod and solonchak.

    Kazakh forest steppe 2007

  • Here sturdy farmers, well versed in the ancient traditions of the countryside, raised Jersey cattle, plump black-and-white Hampshire hogs, rugged Clydesdales and poultry of the best breed The experts might also have selected that rare and rich band of black chernozem that stretched across southern Russia, especially in the Ukraine.

    Centennial Michener, James 1974

  • Ukraine could regain its position as a global breadbasket, realising the huge agricultural potential of its famous chernozem (black earth), one of the most fertile soils in the world.

    Environment news, comment and analysis from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk 2010

  • Water consumption Phaseolus vulgaris conditions irrigation leached chernozem soil Suceava

    MyLinkVault Newest Links 2008

  • Fertilization of sugar beet and winter wheat grown on calcareous chernozem soil in Stavropol 'Province

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

  • Even though such warm, relatively moist phases usually lasted only a few hundred years, and started out from the skeletal loess desert/semi-desert soils of glacial conditions (with which they are inter-leaved), these buried steppe soils have all the rich organic content of a present-day chernozem soil that has had many thousands of years to build up its carbon (E. Zelikson, Russian Academy of Sciences, pers. comm.,

    The Future of Power Generation: Nuclear Fusion 2007

  • GOLD: The humus content of chernozem gives it an ability to retain moisture that makes it ideal for Russia has tens of millions of hectares of it "The surge in

    WN.com - Articles related to U.S. Urges Arab States to Boost Oil for China 2009

  • GOLD: The humus content of chernozem gives it an ability to retain moisture that makes it ideal for Russia has tens of millions of hectares of it "The surge in

    WN.com - Articles related to U.S. Urges Arab States to Boost Oil for China 2009

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