Kastanozem (also known as "chestnut soil") is one of the 32 Reference Soil Groups of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). These soils are brighter than Chernozems, and are related to the Mollisols in the USDA soil taxonomy.

Kastanozems occur mainly in the dry parts of the steppe regions of the world. Vast areas are found in central Asia and central USA. Smaller occurrences are reported from the Mediterranean region.

The Digitized Soil Map of the World, at 1:5,000,000 scale, is in the Geographic projection (lat/long) intersected with a template containing water related features. It was intersected with the Country Boundaries map from the World Data Bank II.

Kastanozem, one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Kastanozems are humus -rich soils that were originally covered with early-maturing native grassland vegetation, which produces a characteristic brown surface layer.

Major areas are in the Eur-asian short grass steppe belt (southern Ukraine, southern Russia, and Mongolia), in the Great Plains of the USA, and in Mexico, southwestern Brasil, and the pampa regions of Northern Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Figure 1 shows the worldwide occurrence of Kastanozems.

The FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World was published between 1974 and 1978 at 1:5 000 000 scale. The fields (columns) of the shapefile’s table are described below.

The Kastanozems (from Latin, castaneo, chestnut, and Russian, zemlja, earth) that generally occur in the driest part of the steppe zone, with lighter-colored topsoils and stronger accumulations of calcium carbonate or gypsum;

Below: Secondary calcium carbonate accumulation occurs close to the surface; The mapshows the location of areas in Europe where Kastanozems are the dominant soil. Covers 2 % of Europe.

Kastanozems are fertile soils found in the short grass steppe belt with a humus rich topsoil horizon that is less deep and less black than Chernozems. They have a more chestnut color and contain a greater accumulation of carbonates.

Kastanozems occur mainly in the dry parts of the permanent grassland (steppe) regions of the world (the Great Plains of the USA, Mexico, the pampas of Latin America and the Eurasian short-grass-steppe-belt). The estimated total extent of Kastanozems is at about 4.65 million km 2.