Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-24-2025
Publication Title
Ecological Solutions and Evidence
First Page
e70020
DOI
10.1002/2688-8319.70020
Additional Publication URL
https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70020
Abstract
Abstract Urban areas are foci for the introduction of non-native plant species, and they often act as launching sites for invasions into the wider environment. Although interest in biological invasions in urban areas is growing rapidly, and the extent and complexity of problems associated with invasions in these systems have increased, data on the composition and numbers of non-native plants in urbanized areas remain scattered and idiosyncratic. We assembled data from multiple sources to create the Global Urban Biological Invasions Compendium (GUBIC) for vascular plants representing 553 urban centres from 61 countries across every continent except Antarctica. The GUBIC repository includes 8140 non-native plant species from 253 families. The number of urban centres in which these non-native species occurred had a log-normal distribution, with 65.2% of non-native species occurring in fewer than 10 urban centres. Practical implications: The dataset has wider applications for urban ecology, invasion biology, macroecology, conservation, urban planning and sustainability. We hope this dataset will stimulate future research in invasion ecology related to the diversity and distributional patterns of non-native flora across urban centres worldwide. Further, this information should aid the early detection and risk assessment of potential invasive species, inform policy development and assist in setting management priorities.
Rights
Ecological Solutions and Evidence published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. on behalf of the British Ecological Society. This is an open-access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The version of record can be found here.
Recommended Citation
Li, D., Potgieter, L. J., Aronson, M. F. J., Axmanová, I., Baiser, B., Carboni, M., Celesti-Grapow, L., Knapp, S., Kühn, I., Lacerda de Matos, A. C., Lososová, Z., Montaño-Centellas, F. A., Pyšek, P., Richardson, D. M., Trotta, L. B., Zenni, R. D., Cilliers, S. S., Clarkson, B. D., Davis, A. J. S., … Cadotte, M. W. (2025). GUBIC: The global urban biological invasions compendium for plants. Ecological Solutions and Evidence, 6, e70020. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70020
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Biology Commons, Other Life Sciences Commons, Other Plant Sciences Commons
