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• 43 • <br />iVe further need data on rates of geochemical differentiation and <br />stratification under various plant covers and under various regimes <br />of fertilization and irrigation that may be contemplated for soil <br />materials that may be pressed into service as topsoil over sites <br />to be reclaimed. We need to ]mow the effects of such fertilization, <br />irrigation, and soil homogenization as may be anticipated upon long- <br />term soil fertility and stability. <br />CONCLUSIONS <br />The arid portions of the northern high plains in eastern iVyoming and i~fontana <br />offer conditions of biogeochemical restraint upon reclamation that are rep- <br />resentative of those to be found throughout most of the arid west. Through <br />analysis from the temporal and spatial perspective of Quaternary soil science <br />and geology, the success of reclamation on the arid high plains is seen as <br />severely limited by rates of soil formation and plant succession. Particularly <br />disturbing is the distinct possibility that native soils and plant communities <br />may be the result of evolution through a sequence of climatic episodes that, <br />if lmown, could not necessarily by reproduced under today's climatic restraints <br />without extraordinary inputs of energy and labor for very long periods of time. <br />Current reclamation efforts and evaluations suffer from a simplified emperical <br />agricultural approach to soil management that does not seem to accomodate the <br />ranges of extremes of climate and other stress factors to which a vegetational <br />unit must adapt if it is to progress unaided along a successional pathway with- <br />