Naturalized alien flora of the world: species diversity, taxonomic and phylogenetic patterns, geographic distribution and global hotspots of plant invasion

• Published in: Preslia
• Main Authors: Pyšek, Petr, Pergl, Jan, Essl, Franz, Lenzner, Bernd, Dawson, Wayne, Kreft, Holger, Weigelt, Patrick, Winter, Marten, Kartesz, John, Nishino, Misako, Antonova, Liubov A., Barcelona, Julie F., Cabesaz, Francisco J., Cárdenas, Dairon, Cárdenas-Toro, Juliana, Castaño, Nicolás, Chacón, Eduardo, Chatelain, Cyrille, Dullinger, Stefan, Ebel, Aleksandr L., Figueiredo, Estrela, Fuentes, Nicol, Genovesi, Piero, Groom, Quentin J., Henderson, Lesley, Inderjit, Kupriyanov, Andrey, Masciadri, Silvana, Maurel, Noëlie, Meerman, Jan, Morozova, Olga, Moser, Dietmar, Nickrent, Daniel, Nowak, Pauline M., Pagad, Shyama, Patzelt, Annette, Pelser, Pieter B., Seebens, Hanno, Shu, Wen-sheng, Thomas, Jacob, Velayos, Mauricio, Weber, Ewald, Wieringa, Jan J., Baptiste, María P., Kleunen, Mark van
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: alien species; distribution; Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database; invasive species; islands; life history; mainland; naturalized species; phylogeny; plant invasion; regional floras; species richness; taxonomy; zonobiome; Arctic; New Zealand; Pacific; Queensland
• Online Access: https://kramerius.lib.cas.cz/view/uuid:9760469e-ce4b-45e8-bb5d-417e61145ef4; https://doi.org/10.23855/preslia.2017.203

Using the recently built Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database, containing data on the distribution of naturalized alien plants in 483 mainland and 361 island regions of the world, we describe patterns in diversity and geographic distribution of naturalized and invasive plant species, taxonomic, phylogenetic and life-history structure of the global naturalized flora as well as levels of naturalization and their determinants. The mainland regions with the highest numbers of naturalized aliens are some Australian states (with New South Wales being the richest on this continent) and several North American regions (of which California with 1753 naturalized plant species represents the world’s richest region in terms of naturalized alien vascular plants). England, Japan, New Zealand and the Hawaiian archipelago harbour most naturalized plants among islands or island groups. These regions also form the main hotspots of the regional levels of naturalization, measured as the percentage of naturalized aliens in the total flora of the region. Such hotspots of relative naturalized species richness appear on both the western and eastern coasts of North America, in north-western Europe, South Africa, south-eastern Australia, New Zealand, and India. High levels of island invasions by naturalized plants are concentrated in the Pacific, but also occur on individual islands across all oceans. The numbers of naturalized species are closely correlated with those of native species, with a stronger correlation and steeper increase for islands than mainland regions, indicating a greater vulnerability of islands to invasion by species that become successfully naturalized. South Africa, India, California, Cuba, Florida, Queensland and Japan have the highest numbers of invasive species. Regions in temperate and tropical zonobiomes harbour in total 9036 and 6774 naturalized species, respectively, followed by 3280 species naturalized in the Mediterranean zonobiome, 3057 in the subtropical zonobiome and 321 in the Arctic. The ...