All around the globe, humans have greatly altered the abiotic and biotic environment with ever-increasing speed. One defining feature of the Anthropocene epoch is the erosion of biogeographical barriers by human-mediated dispersal of species into new regions, where they can naturalize and cause ecological, economic and social damage. So far, no comprehensive analysis of the global accumulation and exchange of alien plant species between continents has been performed, primarily because of a lack of data. Here we bridge this knowledge gap by using a unique global database on the occurrences of naturalized alien plant species in 481 mainland and 362 island regions. In total, 13,168 plant species, corresponding to 3.9% of the extant global vascular flora, or approximately the size of the native European flora, have become naturalized somewhere on the globe as a result of human activity. North America has accumulated the largest number of naturalized species, whereas the Pacific Islands show the fastest increase in species numbers with respect to their land area. Continents in the Northern Hemisphere have been the major donors of naturalized alien species to all other continents. Our results quantify for the first time the extent of plant naturalizations worldwide, and illustrate the urgent need for globally integrated efforts to control, manage and understand the spread of alien species.

ARC Plant Protection Research Institute Pretoria 0001 South Africa

Arts Faculty Monash University 3145 Melbourne Australia

Belize Tropical Forest Studies PO Box 208 Belmopan Belize

Biodiversity Macroecology and Conservation Biogeography University of Göttingen Büsgenweg 1 D 37077 Göttingen Germany

Biosystematics Group Wageningen University Droevendaalsesteeg 1 6708 PB Wageningen the Netherlands

Biota of North America Program Chapel Hill North Carolina 27516 USA

Botanic Garden Meise Domein van Bouchout B 1860 Meise Belgium

Centre for Functional Ecology Departamento de Ciências da Vida Universidade de Coimbra 3001 455 Coimbra Portugal

Centre for Invasion Biology Department of Botany and Zoology Stellenbosch University Matieland 7602 South Africa

Conservatoire et jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève 1292 Genève Switzerland

Departamento de Biodiversidad y Conservación Real Jardín Botánico CSIC Plaza de Murillo 2 28014 Madrid Spain

Department of Biology Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg D 06108 Halle Germany

Department of Botany and Microbiology College of Science King Saud University PO Box 2455 Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia

Department of Botany PO Box 77000 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Port Elizabeth 6031 South Africa

Department of Ecology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague CZ 128 44 Viničná 7 Prague 2 Czech Republic

Department of Environmental Studies and Centre for Environmental Management Degraded of Ecosystems University of Delhi Delhi 110007 India

Department of Plant Biology Southern Illinois University Carbondale Illinois 62901 6509 USA

Division of Conservation Vegetation and Landscape Ecology University of Vienna 1030 Wien Austria

Ecology Department of Biology University of Konstanz Universitätsstrasse 10 D 78464 Konstanz Germany

Escuela de Biología Universidad de Costa Rica 11501 San José Costa Rica

Facultad de Ciencias Forestales Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad Universidad de Concepción Victoria 631 403000 Concepción Chile

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Deutscher Platz 5e D 04103 Leipzig Germany

Institute for Aquatic and Ecological Problems Far East Branch Russian Academy of Sciences 680000 Khabarovsk Russia

Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment University of Oldenburg Carl von Ossietzky Straße 9 11 D 26111 Oldenburg Germany

Institute of Biochemistry and Biology University of Potsdam D 14469 Potsdam Germany

Institute of Botany Department of Invasion Ecology The Czech Academy of Sciences CZ 252 43 Průhonice Czech Republic

Institute of Geography RAS Staromonetny 29 119017 Moscow Russia

Institute of Human Ecology SB RAS Pr Leningradasky 10 650065 Kemerovo Russia

Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas Sinchi Herbario Amazónico Colombiano 110311 Bogotá Colombia

Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt 111311 Bogotá Colombia

Laboratory of Plant Taxonomy and Phylogeny Tomsk State University Lenin Prospect 36 634050 Tomsk Russia

Naturalis Biodiversity Center Darwinweg 2 2333 CR Leiden the Netherlands

Oceanología y Ecología Marina Facultad de Ciencias Universidad de la República Iguá 4225 CP 11400 Montevideo Uruguay

Oman Botanic Garden Diwan of Royal Court 122 Muscat Oman

Programa de Pós graduación en Ecología UFRN Campus Lagoa Nova 59078 900 Natal Brazil

School of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch 8140 New Zealand

State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Resources College of Ecology and Evolution Sun Yat sen University Guangzhou 510275 China

The Forest Herbarium Department of National Parks Wildlife and Plant Conservation Chatuchak Bangkok 10900 Thailand

Komentář v

Nature. 2015 Sep 3;525(7567):39-40. doi: 10.1038/nature15206. PubMed

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2004 Oct 29;359(1450):1551-71 PubMed

Nature. 2015 Mar 12;519(7542):171-80 PubMed

PLoS One. 2008;3(11):e3630 PubMed

Trends Ecol Evol. 2011 Jul;26(7):333-9 PubMed

Ecology. 2007 Jan;88(1):3-17 PubMed

Trends Ecol Evol. 2013 Jan;28(1):58-66 PubMed

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jun 9;106(23):9322-7 PubMed

Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2011 Mar 13;369(1938):842-67 PubMed

Science. 2013 Jan 18;339(6117):277-8 PubMed

Science. 2013 Sep 6;341(6150):1100-3 PubMed

Science. 2014 Mar 28;343(6178):1520-2 PubMed

Herbarium specimens reveal a cryptic invasion of polyploid Centaurea stoebe in Europe

Global proliferation of nonnative plants is a major driver of insect invasions

Invading plants remain undetected in a lag phase while they explore suitable climates

A latitudinal gradient in Darwin's naturalization conundrum at the global scale for flowering plants

The poleward naturalization of intracontinental alien plants

Evolutionary imbalance, climate and human history jointly shape the global biogeography of alien plants

Historical plant introductions predict current insect invasions

Contrasting patterns in phylogenetic and biogeographic factories of invasive grasses (Poaceae) across the globe

The impact of land use on non-native species incidence and number in local assemblages worldwide

Naturalized alien floras still carry the legacy of European colonialism

The role of phylogenetic relatedness on alien plant success depends on the stage of invasion

Introducing the combined atlas framework for large-scale web-based data visualization: The GloNAF atlas of plant invasion

Think globally, measure locally: The MIREN standardized protocol for monitoring plant species distributions along elevation gradients

The global loss of floristic uniqueness

Persistent soil seed banks promote naturalisation and invasiveness in flowering plants

Data Descriptor: Pacific Introduced Flora (PaciFLora)

Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe's alien and native floras

Role of diversification rates and evolutionary history as a driver of plant naturalization success

Effects of land-use change and related pressures on alien and native subsets of island communities

Scientists' warning on invasive alien species