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Article 17 - Volume 36/1 - 2026

Paper title:

The place and role of chernozems and regenerative agriculture in mitigating climate change and increasing adaptive capacity

Author(s):

Gheorghe JIGĂU1, Sergiu DOBROJAN1, Galina DOBROJAN1, Iulian JIGĂU2

1 Moldova State University, Republic of Moldova
2 Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Policies, Republic of Moldova

Pages:

260 - 277

Publishing date:

25 February 2026

Abstract:

Despite the limited areas (725 million ha) of chernozems within the land, they contain about 8% of the global reserves of organic carbon contained in the pedosphere and account for about 10% of the global potential for sequestering organic carbon. At the same time, as a result of the degradation of arable chernozems (globally, about 31% of the total area of chernozems is included in the agricultural circuit), they have practically transformed from areas sequestering greenhouse gases into areas emitting them. In addition, their natural fertility has been significantly reduced and, respectively, the capacity to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through plants. Solving this global problem requires changing the paradigm of agricultural chernozem management by placing emphasis on sequestering and stabilizing organic carbon in the soil within the framework of agrobiocenotic pedoregenerative agricultural technologies. At the same time, the theoretical principles of chernozem pedogenesis assume the management of the unidirectional regeneration process of the chernozem pedogenetic process within two successive natural-anthropogenic-evolutionary phases: a) rehabilitation and b) regeneration.

Keywords:

chernozems, organic carbon sequestration, humus mineralization