Calcareous grassland (or alkaline grassland) is an
ecosystem associated with thin
basic
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
soil, such as that on
chalk and
limestone downland. Plants on calcareous grassland are typically short and
hardy
Hardy may refer to:
People
* Hardy (surname)
* Hardy (given name)
* Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica
* Mount Hardy, Enderby Land
* Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island
* Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands
Australia
* Hardy, Sout ...
, and include
grasses and herbs such as
clover. Calcareous grassland is an important habitat for insects, particularly
butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
and ants,
and is kept at a
plagioclimax by
grazing animals, usually sheep and sometimes cattle.
Rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
s used to play a part but due to the onset of
myxomatosis their numbers decreased so dramatically that they no longer have much of a grazing effect.
There are large areas of calcareous grassland in northwestern
Europe, particularly areas of southern
England, such as
Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...
and the
North and
South Downs.
The
machair forms a different kind of calcareous grassland, where fertile low-lying plains are formed on ground that is
calcium-rich due to shell sand (pulverised
sea shells).
See also
*
Alvar
*
Chalk heath
*
Edaphic
*
Gypcrust
*
Gypsum flora of Nova Scotia
*
Rendzina
Notes
References
* Gibson, C.W.D. (1995). Chalk grasslands on former arable land: a review. Bioscan (UK) Ltd, Oxford.
* Gibson, C.W.D. & Brown, V.K. (1991). The nature and rate of development of calcareous grassland in southern Britain. Biological Conservation, 58, 297-316.
* Hillier, S.H., Walton, D.W.H. & Wells, D.A. (Eds.) (1990). Calcareous grasslands - ecology and management. Bluntisham, Huntingdon.
*Mugnai M, Frasconi Wendt C, Balzani P, Ferretti G, Dal Cin M, Masoni A, Frizzi F, Santini G, Viciani D, Foggi B, Lazzaro L. (2021). Small-scale drivers on plant and ant diversity in a grassland habitat through a multifaceted approach. ''PeerJ'' 9:e12517 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12517
*
* Smith, C.J. (1980). The Ecology of the English Chalk. Academic Press, London.
*
*
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Grasslands
Soil
Habitats