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.

APCalign: an R package workflow and app for aligning and updating flora names to the Australian Plant Census

“…Information about state-level establishment means is a result of a complex consultation process involving the state herbaria. A static version of this is available (Martín-Forés et al 2023), along with R scripts. A very similar product is available here, but in a more user-friendly R package with automatic file handling that also dynamically updates as APC moves forward.…”