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• ~z <br />oversaturation of the soil through irrigation. 1ti'hen this hap~~ens, as is <br />common in agricultural lands in the U.S. and those cotuttries to which it <br />supplies agricultural "aid", then further fertilization becomes necessary <br />to maintain a given level of soil productivity and a vicious cycle is be- <br />gun that renders soils unable to support native communities of plants and <br />locks land managers into continuous manipulation of the soil through <br />'soil conservation' practices that require ever-greater inputs of energy <br />and chemicals. This "chemical-fix" soil drug dependence cannot under any <br />definition be termed reclamation and should be avoided at all costs. To <br />insure against such misapplication of agricultural soil ammendments and <br />procedures in the arid high plains, one needs to accurately understand <br />seasonal dynamics of soil moisture, nutrient mobility, illuvial and mineral <br />weathering processes, soil gas exchange, and soil-plant interaction. These <br />together co~rise an understanding of the biogeochemical limitations upon <br />reclamation. <br />Success of Past Efforts <br />Since insufficient time has elapsed to be able to judge current reclamation <br />efforts in the arid high plains, one can attempt to assess longer-term <br />potentials for success on the basis of analyses of lands disturbed many <br />decades ago. Such work suffers from the universally-applicable criticism <br />that one cannot judge current reclamation efforts and technology on the <br />basis of plant succession on abandoned lands or earlier efforts at reclamation <br />