Harmonising and unifying data for effective management of plant invasions in Australia
Photo and words from TERN website, published Sept 2024
Invasion ecologists, led by TERN’s Dr Irene Martin-Fores, have developed a workflow to integrate and harmonise terminology and information on plant invasions across federally managed countries. TERN is well known in Australia for developing and delivering standardised methods. This time, TERN’s efforts focus on facilitating prevention and management of biological invasions and informing biosecurity actions.
“The importance of both harmonising terminology and invasion status and unifying existing censuses in federally managed countries cannot be overstated. It is not merely an academic pursuit but a practical necessity, essential for delivering accurate and useful information in invasion ecology, and for informing biosecurity actions”, said Dr Irene Martín-Forés, University of Adelaide and TERN
Invasive plant species threaten biodiversity
Australia’s unique biodiversity faces a persistent threat from invasive plant species, which can disrupt ecosystems, endanger native flora and fauna, impact agricultural productivity and affect human health and well-being.
Tackling this challenge requires a comprehensive understanding of plant invasion trends and dynamics and the delivery of standardised and unified information to enable effective prevention and management strategies. Thus, having accessible, standardised, and unified data sources is key to successfully address the threat posed by biological invasions.
In federally managed countries, like Australia, different jurisdictions independently collate and contribute data on plant invasions. Sometimes those data use different terminology and report contrasting and contradictory information, leading to inconsistencies at the national level and therefore hampering efficient management.
In Australia, plant censuses including information on invasion status for vascular plant taxa are contributed independently by existing jurisdictions (including the six Australian states and two mainland territories). There is also a comprehensive plant census at the Australian national scale with accepted taxonomy for vascular plants, the Australian Plant Census (APC). Despite being federally managed, the APC provides information on a state-by-state basis, not synthesised nationally. Finally, the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) for Australia was recently published. However, to date nobody had integrated and harmonised all these existing data sources in Australia.