Island wetlands of Malta

The site consists of a stretch of watercourse that is intercepted by dams such that the site retains water even outside of the rainy season. The site is scheduled as an Area of Ecological Importance and a Site of Scientific Importance through Government Notice 1236 of 2012. The watercourse is scheduled as a level 1 Site of Scientific Importance for the only known locality for the freshwater snail Lymnaea peregra and the hemipteran Nabis ferus. As reported in the Government Notice, this part of the watercourse also supports other freshwater snails (Physella acuta and Lymnaea truncatula) and the freshwater beetle Gyrinus dejeani.The site includes what can be described as a degraded wetland. The habitat consists of an area that is inundated with water, however, it is not dominated by hygrophytes, instead ruderal species are dominant. A pond area The area is part of an ongoing restoration plan that is currently (at the time of writing, i.e.2019) in the implementation process and therefore habitats recorded during the baseline may have changed or since been removed since fieldwork was carried out in 2018. For instance, the Arundo donax reed bed has been almost completely removed in a bid to allow for rare riparian habitats of conservation interest (also at European Level) to take over and colonise this area following planting and bio-engineering works. A Poplar gallery is located upstream similar to the one located behind the dam after Tas-Slampa, the aim of the restoration plan is to extend this habitat type and therefore improve the ecological value of the area. Part of the restoration works included dredging and removing silt from behind the dams to improve water storage capacity and help Malta to achieve its goals in this regard. The area behind the large dam was previously characterised by dominant hygrophytes including Rumex crispus, Ranunculus muricatus, Apium nodiflorum, Ranunculus saniculifolius, Mentha pulegium, Rumex conglomeratus and Holoschoenus scirpoides. A population of Phragmites tenuifolia was also present. The drier areas were dominated by ruderal species. During the restoration works, the hygrophyte seed bank was retained whereby the top metre of silt/soil was moved to the banks of the watercourse until restoration works are completed.