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S • <br />species under conditions of stress. D1ere use of native seed sources is <br />assumed by many to insure survival of plant cover through drought or <br />other stress periods without understanding how a mosaic of native species <br />is necessary to accomplish this task. <br />This paper will attempt to develop a perspective on the reclamation of <br />surface mined lands that includes an understanding of the function of soil <br />and its geochemical ewlution through a period of changing climate. Success- <br />ful plant cover and associated soil microorganisms and surface biota are <br />seen from the biogeographic historical perspective. Reclamation is possible <br />through simulation of past conditions or through reconstruction of_support <br />systems capable of providing th_ a ~namic niches necessary for stability and <br />productivity. Imperative in the philosophy of_this_paper is the concept that <br />maximimt utilization of_all__available niches and trophic.levels._will_have <br />occurred under natural landscape_.evolution_through_geologic time. There <br />exists in the Northern Great Plains no 'stable' ecosystems since periods of <br />time of stable climate have been too short and soils are too immature to <br />provide for maximum efficiency of utilization of energy flowing through these <br />ecosystems. Reclamation is seen as a goal of returning the land surface to <br />-~. _ _ <br />conditions in which the stability and productivity of the site approaches that <br />prior to disturbance and in which the nutrient, energy, and matter pathways are <br />at least as closed as they were prior to disturbance. This does not mean that <br />nutrient cycling must go on in closed loops such as would be idealized for <br />mature ecosystems, but that inflow, outflow, and retention times_for_nutrients <br />