@article{57389bd865254c778b7ea136b85289eb,
title = "The Alien Flora of Australia (AFA), a unified Australian national dataset on plant invasion",
abstract = "Biological invasions are a major threat to Australia. Information on alien flora in Australia is collated independently by different jurisdictions, which has led to inconsistencies at the national level, hampering efficient management. To harmonise different information sources, we present the Alien Flora of Australia (AFA), a nationally unified dataset. To create the AFA, we developed an R script that compares existing data sources (the Australian Plant Census and state and territory censuses), identifies mismatches among them and integrates the information into unified invasion statuses at the national scale. The AFA follows the taxonomy and nomenclature adopted for the Australian Plant Census, introduction status and impact of plants known to occur in Australia. The up-to-date information presented in this dataset can aid early warning of alien species invasions, facilitate decision-making at different levels, and biosecurity at national scale. The associated script is ready to be implemented into new versions of the AFA with updated releases of any of the data sources, streamlining future efforts to track of alien flora across Australia.",
author = "I. Mart{\'i}n-For{\'e}s and Guerin, {G. R.} and D. Lewis and Gallagher, {R. V.} and M. Vil{\`a} and Catford, {J. A.} and A. Pauchard and B. Sparrow",
note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge the TERN Ecosystem Surveillance as well as support by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. We thank Dr Kerry Gibbons, Dr Hannah McPherson, and Peter Jobson from the Royal Botanic Gardens for providing the 2022 plant census of NSW, and Julia Percy-Bower and Cheryl Parker from the Western Australian Herbarium for collating the alien census of WA from Florabase and sharing it with us. We are grateful as well for the help provided by Anne Fuchs and Julia Inez Bignall regarding the boolean flags in the APC dataset, and for insight in the application of the Darwin Core vocabulary in VicFlora provided by Niels Klazenga. We thank Miguel de Salas from the Tasmanian Herbarium; Alastair Robinson and David Cantrill from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria; Brendan Lepschi and Anna Monro from the Australian National Herbarium; Nicholas Cuff from the Northern Territory Herbarium; Michael Stead, Juergen Kellermann, Timothy Hammer, Helen Vonow, and Peter Lang from the South Australian Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium; Dr. Gillian Brown from the Queensland Herbarium; and Shyama Pagad, Deputy Chair- Information. IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) and point of contact for the Australian GRIIS for supportive communication with us during the process. We also thank Louis Elliott and Ben Richardson for valuable conversations about the censuses of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, respectively. We also acknowledge HISCOM for valuable feedback to improve the standardisation process to create this dataset. Likewise, I am very grateful for insightful conversations on the topic with Philip Hulme, Phill Cassey, John Virtue, Cameron Slatyer and Andrew Lowe. Finally, we would like to acknowledge two anonymous reviewers and Dr Guy Jones, the Chief Editor of Scientific Data for their valuable suggestions that have considerably improved this paper. AP funded by ANID/BASAL FB210006. Funding Information: We acknowledge the TERN Ecosystem Surveillance as well as support by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. We thank Dr Kerry Gibbons, Dr Hannah McPherson, and Peter Jobson from the Royal Botanic Gardens for providing the 2022 plant census of NSW, and Julia Percy-Bower and Cheryl Parker from the Western Australian Herbarium for collating the alien census of WA from Florabase and sharing it with us. We are grateful as well for the help provided by Anne Fuchs and Julia Inez Bignall regarding the boolean flags in the APC dataset, and for insight in the application of the Darwin Core vocabulary in VicFlora provided by Niels Klazenga. We thank Miguel de Salas from the Tasmanian Herbarium; Alastair Robinson and David Cantrill from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria; Brendan Lepschi and Anna Monro from the Australian National Herbarium; Nicholas Cuff from the Northern Territory Herbarium; Michael Stead, Juergen Kellermann, Timothy Hammer, Helen Vonow, and Peter Lang from the South Australian Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium; Dr. Gillian Brown from the Queensland Herbarium; and Shyama Pagad, Deputy Chair- Information. IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) and point of contact for the Australian GRIIS for supportive communication with us during the process. We also thank Louis Elliott and Ben Richardson for valuable conversations about the censuses of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, respectively. We also acknowledge HISCOM for valuable feedback to improve the standardisation process to create this dataset. Likewise, I am very grateful for insightful conversations on the topic with Philip Hulme, Phill Cassey, John Virtue, Cameron Slatyer and Andrew Lowe. Finally, we would like to acknowledge two anonymous reviewers and Dr Guy Jones, the Chief Editor of Scientific Data for their valuable suggestions that have considerably improved this paper. AP funded by ANID/BASAL FB210006. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s).",
year = "2023",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1038/s41597-023-02746-3",
language = "English",
volume = "10",
journal = "Scientific Data",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "1",
}