Dust and Gas around lambda Bootis Stars

High-resolution spectra of lambda Bootis stars reveal the presence of circumstellar gas for example in the Ca K line. The example of the normal A star beta Pictoris shows, that the narrow stable absorption component in Ca K can be reproduced using appropriate disk models and a calcium underabundance in the circumstellar gas of a factor of ~30. Similar models are suggested for the group of metal-deficient lambda Bootis stars, but the observational material is still very poor.