short sward & bare ground

In lowland habitats where disturbance removes vegetation to create areas of bare or sparsely vegetated ground.

Suitable sources of disturbance include landslips, wind and salt blast on sea cliffs, sand accretion on sand dunes and small-scale poaching by grazing animals. Disturbance as a result of direct human activity can also produce good habitat, both in semi-natural situations (such as footpaths and tracks on heathlands) and in brownfield contexts, although much depends on the scale and frequency of such human-caused disturbance (small-scale, patchy disturbance is more likely to produce good invertebrate habitat than large-scale and more homogeneous disturbance).

Habitat continuity is often associated with nutrient-deficient soils or exposure regimes that deflect ecological succession. Semi-natural biotopes supporting important examples of this assemblage type include sea cliffs, sand dunes, heathland and chalk downland. Arable land on nutrient-poor and freely-draining soils can also support interesting examples as can recently disused quarries and post-industrial and urban brownfield sites.