The Global Naturalized Alien Flora: building the bridge from species characteristics to impacts and conservation science

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Mark van Kleunen
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
• Term: since 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264740629

Thousands of plant species have been introduced by humans from their native lands to foreign regions, where some of them have established as permanent residents. Due to the DFG-FWF-funded Global Naturalized Alien Flora database project, we now know that there are at least 16,000 of such naturalized plant species globally. During the current project phase, we have updated GloNAF and harmonized the taxonomic names according to the World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Our analyses showed that many species that have become naturalized in foreign lands are also expanding in their native ranges, and that only 231 naturalized species are threatened in their native ranges. We also showed that invasions are most likely in habitats intensively used by humans, and that the number of invaded vegetation plots in Europe has doubled since 1930. Furthermore, we assessed the potential threats of alien pathogenic fungi associated with alien plant species, and the potential future ranges of naturalized species. In the next project phase, we will continue to advance the understanding of global plant invasions. This will be done by continuing to update and expand the GloNAF-database, and by combining GloNAF with other databases to address major questions in invasion science, conservation science, macroecology and biogeography. Our four main objectives are (1) to update and expand the GloNAF-database, (2) to test how characteristics of alien plants shape invasion success, (3) to analyse the spatial and temporal distribution of naturalized plants and of the multidimensional impacts of invasive plants, and (4) to test the effectiveness of the protected areas network in limiting plant invasions, and how the protected area network should be expanded to meet plant invasion-related conservation goals.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Partner Organisation: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Franz Essl; Dr. Bernd Lenzner; Dr. Ali Omer; Anna Schertler; Tom Vorstenbosch