EARTH BANK

Earth bank: a bank higher than 25cm comprising mainly mineral or peaty soil usually with a vegetation cover of grassland or heath. Earth banks can have a dry stone component. They can be colonised by gorse (Ulex europaeus), shrubs and trees or may represent degraded hedges with little shrub cover or a line of trees.

Gaps in Earth banks account for less than 50% of the length.

Habitat examples: Click on an image to enlarge.
   
Earth bank: distribution in NI.
Earth banks have a length of 3.0 km/km2 (41,254 km) in NI. They are more concentrated in the uplands (4.4 km/km2) compared with the lowlands (2.4 km/km2). Study areas with higher concentrations are the Mourne AONB (4.7 km/km2), Sperrins AONB (5.4 km/km2) and Slieve Gullion (6.2 km/km2).
Earth bank: predicted distribution map (1998).
Earth bank: net change 1991 - 1998.
Earth banks have decreased significantly in length by 10% (-4,727 km) throughout lowland and upland landscapes and in most study areas.
Earth bank: summary of losses and gains 1991 - 1998.

Earth bank: losses and gains 1991 - 1998.
Loss of Earth banks was mainly by removal. Field Boundaries in the losses and gains table below are linked to their descriptors and NI data.
 
Losses
(1991 - 98)		 Field
Boundaries		 Gains
(1991 - 98)
km % km %
910 2 *     Hedge 950 <1 *
115 <1 *     Dry stone wall 0    
45 <1 *     Mortared wall 0    
29 <1       Ruined dry stone wall 0    
924 2 *     Fence 19 <1  
3746 8 *     No Field Boundary 61 - *
Note :   % = percentage of baseline length
             * = indicates significant transition (p = 0.05)
 
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