Talk:Calcareous grassland

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Brittanica has a reference to the machair being on Calcareous sand - does this fit into this article? dave souza 18:58, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I don't think so. Calcareous grassland as I'm familiar with it refers only to grassland on limestone (and chalk etc) hills, not coastal plains, but I'm not an ecologist. Asking on wikipedia:Peer review might get a more authoritative answer.. --Joe D 19:29, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

This sounds convincing. It came up when I was doing work on Calgary, Mull and there's a link to Calcareous there in the hopes that someone with more knowledge will clarify it.. thanks, dave souza 22:32, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Yes, machair is calcareous grassland. It is calcium-rich due to shell sand (pulverised sea shells). To be calcareous grassland, the soil just has to be rich in calcium, whatever the source of the calcium, nor does it have to be at any particular altitude - MPF 23:15, 27 July 2005 (UTC)