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<br />6 <br />and energy from one site to another, or from one community to another, <br />remain on the same order of macnitude. <br />SOIL AS A BIOGEO©IIEI~IICAL DIEDIUM <br />It has long been recognized that soil comprises a mineral component and <br />both inert and living organic components. Plant ecologists have developed <br />understanding of the dynamics of soil and its associated biota through <br />recognition that the degree of soil development limits the biotope it <br />supports. Soil scientists are recognizing that geochemical conditions <br />that vary through time markedly affect the degree and kind of soils that <br />develop from a single substrate and that these conditions develop as a <br />result of climate, plant cover, and the stability of the surface of the <br />land. Yet eat iscipline has tended to see differing ultimate controlling <br />factors of climate, substrate, and plant cover as a function of their <br />understandings of biogeography, climatic history, plant ecology, and soil <br />genesis. <br />The Biogeochemical Evolution of the High Plains <br />To set the stage for discussion to follow, it is necessary to review some <br />basic information about the geologic and botanical history of the Northern <br />Great Plains and to integrate these data into an understanding of the <br />