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Plants on calcareous grassland are typically short and hardy, and include grasses and herbs such as clover. Calcareous grassland is an important habitat for insects, particularly butterflies and ants, [ 2 ] and is kept at a plagioclimax by grazing animals , usually sheep and sometimes cattle.
Calcareous (/ k æ l ˈ k ɛər i ə s /) is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
Caliche fossil forest on San Miguel Island, California. Caliche (/ k ə ˈ l iː tʃ iː /) (unrelated to the street-slang "Caliche" spoken in El Salvador) is a soil accumulation of soluble calcium carbonate at depth, where it precipitates and binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt.
Rendzina (or rendsina) is a soil type recognized in various soil classification systems, including those of Britain [1] and Germany [2] as well as some obsolete systems. They are humus-rich shallow soils that are usually formed from carbonate- or occasionally sulfate-rich parent material. [2] Rendzina soils are often found in karst and ...
Chalk and other forms of limestone may be used for their properties as a base. [23] Chalk is a source of quicklime by thermal decomposition, or slaked lime following quenching of quicklime with water. [24] In agriculture, chalk is used for raising pH in soils with high acidity. [25] Small doses of chalk can also be used as an antacid. [26]
Additionally, some bacteria can fix atmospheric nitrogen, and some fungi are efficient at extracting deep soil phosphorus and increasing soil carbon levels in the form of glomalin. [69] Plants hold soil against erosion, and accumulated plant material build soil humus levels. Plant root exudation supports microbial activity.
Chalk heath is a rare habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, formed of a paradoxical mixture of shallow-rooted calcifuge ("calcium-hating") and deeper-rooted calcicole ("calcium-loving") plants, growing on a thin layer of acidic soil over an alkaline substrate. Chalk heath is intermediate between two much more ...
The Chalk Group is a sequence of Upper Cretaceous limestones.The dominant lithology is relatively soft porous white chalk with only poorly-defined bedding. The chalk is classified as a biomicrite, [3] with microscopic coccoliths and other fine-grained fossil debris in a matrix of micrite mud.