NOTE: This article is a non-exhaustive review of literature about aspects of the natural Maltese environment, carried out by local scientists and published in 2020.
Mifsud et al. (2020) is the first of two interesting publications about wild Maltese plants. A rare fern from Gozo, previously thought to be endemic, is revealed as belonging to a species encountered elsewhere in southern Europe, albeit with slight differences in form. The second publication, by Attard & Attard (2020), is a book chapter dealing with the effects of various native plant extracts on human white blood cells, with potentially significant implications for chemotherapy and immunology in general.
Other publications focus on the animal kingdom. For a book about early Malta, Fenech & al. (2020) contribute a chapter about (mostly) land snail fossils recovered from core samples taken from local valley beds. These samples include species with no previous fossil records.
Leonard & al. (2020), involving four researchers from the University of Malta, present a study of echinoderms found in the deep sea off the Maltese Islands. The data for this study was acquired through ROVs (remotely-operated underwater vehicles) and reveals details about the ecology of species in habitats impossible to observe through traditional surveying methods, such as diving and trawling. First local records of two species of sea stars and one species of sea cucumber are amongst the results of this investigation.
The three mantis species of the Maltese Islands, remarkable insects that prey on small animals using specialised front legs, are treated in three separate publications (Battiston & al. 2020; Cassar 2020, Ebejer 2020). Cassar gives an illustrated account of each species focusing on the insects’ life history and biogeography, while Battiston’s team, including local researcher A. Sciberras, investigate their role within an ecosystem and their potential as indicators of biodiversity. Both studies stress that human influence on the mantises’ is tolerated to a certain extent by only two of the species, and the threatened third, formerly widespread in western Malta, has now retreated to a few coastal zones in the northwest. Finally, Ebejer’s work is a regional checklist that also covers the mantises’ closest relatives – cockroaches.
Human influence on the natural world is a prevailing theme in today’s world plagued by climate change and unsustainable practices. The extent of this influence is revealed in different ways by Caruana & al. (2020) and Zerafa (2020). The first of these discusses the alarming levels of light pollution, with central Malta in particular exhibiting very high levels of Night Sky Brightness, possibly affecting both biodiversity and human health. Zerafa analyses Sentinel-2 satellite images of Malta from 2015 to 2019, finding a 2.45km² reduction of vegetation in just two years (effected through loss of trees and reduced farming activity) as well as an overall loss of rural zones to urbanisation.
David P. Cilia
Science Communicator
REFERENCES
Attard, T. & Attard, E., 2020. The immunomodulatory activity of some Maltese medicinal plants: tradition, science and future prospects. In: Trends in Pharmaceutical Research and Development (Book Publisher International), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340438249_The_Immunomodulatory_Activity_of_Some_Maltese_Medicinal_Plants_Tradition_Science_and_Future_Prospects
Battiston R., di Pietro W., Amerini R. & Sciberras, A., 2020. The praying mantids (Insecta: Mantodea) as indicators for biodiversity and environmental conservation: a case study from the Maltese and Balearic archipelagos. Biodiversity, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2020.1848623
Caruana, J., Vella, R., Spiteri, D., Nolle, M., Fenech, S. & Aquilina, N. J., 2020. A photometric mapping of the night sky brightness of the Maltese islands. Journal of Environmental Management, 261, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110196.
Cassar, T., 2020. The praying mantises of the Maltese Islands: distribution and ecology (Mantodea). Fragmenta Entomologica, 52 (2): 341-348, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345767516_The_praying_mantises_of_the_Maltese_Islands_distribution_and_ecology_Mantodea
Ebejer M. J., 2020. Checklist of the Dictyoptera (Orders Blattodea and Mantodea) of the Maltese Islands. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, 156 (4): 267-270, DOI: https://doi.org/10.31184/M00138908.1564.4046
Fenech, K., Hunt, C. O., Vella, N. C., & Schembri, P. J. (2020). Molluscan remains from the valley cores. In: Temple landscapes – Fragility, change and resilience of Holocene environments in the Maltese Islands, pp. 115-159 (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research), DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.59605
Leonard, C., Evans, J., Knittweis, L., Aguilar, R., Alvarez, H., Borg, J. A., Garcia, S. & Schembri, P. J., 2020. Diversity, distribution, and habitat associations of deep-water echinoderms in the Central Mediterranean. Marine Biodiversity, 50 (69), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01095-3
Mifsud, S., Troia, A., Bennert, H. W. & Fuchs, J., 2020. Reviewing the identity of the Maltese Polypodium (Polypodiaceae) – new evidence from morphology and flow cytometry. Nova Hedwigia, 110 (3-4): 395-405, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1127/nova_hedwigia/2020/0582
Zerafa, S., 2020. Measuring the loss of arable and rural lands on the Maltese Islands through satellite images. In: PIXAM – Pixels and More, 16 pp., https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342946895_Measuring_the_Loss_of_Arable_and_Rural_Lands_on_the_Maltese_islands_through_Satellite_Images
