Plant communities of the rocky coasts of the Maltese islands

Abstract

This study aims to produce a very broad, low-resolution survey characterising the abundant plant communities throughout the Maltese Islands rocky coasts during the different seasons at different orientations. A pilot study was carried out at Ta' Berwieq (Għar Lapsi) in April 2011 to test the proposed sampling method. Fieldwork surveys were conducted in September 2011 and in February 2012 to collect data in order to investigate any seasonal patterns of vegetation change. Thirteen rocky coast sites around the Maltese Islands were studies and they were chosen according to their north and south orientation. The sites chosen were L-Ixfar (Daħlet Qorrot), Dwejra, Ta' Bumbarin/ Ġebel Barbaġġani (Ħondoq ir-Rummien), Mġarr ix-Xini and San Blas in Gozo together with Wied ix-Xoqqa (Bengħajsa), Ta' Berwieq (Għar Lapsi), It-Trozz (Ġnejna), Pembroke, Qalet Marku (Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq), Rdum il-Bies (Mistra), Ġebel Imbark (Qammieħ) and Ras il-Ġebel (Xagħjra). The abundance of the plant communities were sampled by random walks along the rocky coastal sites. The data was recorded and produced non-metric multidimensional scaling scatter plots and cluster analysis dendrograms using Jaccard's coefficient similarity measure. These resulted in a total of 42 species which included annuals, biennials and annuals with a total of 23 different family populations being dominated by the family Asteraceae. The results were used to generate patterns of the clustering of species and correlating the orientation through the site locations with the seasonal factor. The correlation patterns suggest that a significant relationship exists between the composition of plant communities and the site properties of rocky coasts. The main scope of this study is to contribute to the reliable