If something is spread out and there isn't much of it, it is sparsely there.
When something is sparsely somewhere, it can make people think of emptiness or not enough of something.
Examples:
The trees are sparsely spread out in the desert.
The stars are sparsely seen in the city because of all the lights.
The food was sparsely on the table.
The toys were sparsely in the box, so I could find mine easily.
In the land of candy, vegetables are sparsely found.
The flowers were sparsely in the garden, but they were still very pretty.