Prediction of the impact of projected climate change on hydrology and vegetation of temporary freshwater rockpools of the Maltese Islands

Abstract

The effect of projected climatic change on the hydrology and vegetation dynamics of the temporary freshwater rockpools of the Maltese Islands was investigated through the construction of three future outlooks (‘Most optimistic’, ‘Optimistic’ and ‘Pessimistic’) based on IPCC data for Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. The projected data were subsequently utilised as inputs into hydrodynamic equations that predicted the values of three hydroperiod indicators (number of hydroperiods each year, duration of longest hydroperiod and hydroperiod index).