A‐Islands: A Vascular Plant Dataset for Biodiversity Research and Species Monitoring on Australian Continental Islands
ABSTRACT Aims Australia's coastline is fringed by more than 8000 continental islands. These islands feature a diverse array of landforms, rock and soil types and geological origins. Some of these islands are among the least invaded, most pristine habitats in Australia and support high plant diversity. Here, we present a new Australia‐wide curated dataset for plant species occurrences on islands. Results Combining information from 1349 species lists and floras, A‐Islands includes data on > 6500 plant species from 844 islands ranging in size from 18 m 2 to 4400 km 2 , exhibiting different degrees of isolation from the mainland, and spanning all major Australian climate zones. Of these, 251 islands have been repeatedly sampled up to 11 times, making it possible to investigate temporal compositional change. A‐Islands is open access and will be continuously updated. Its simple data structure, consisting of three comma‐separated files allows easy integration with other Australian and global plant‐occurrence databases and can serve as a repository for island research in Australia. Conclusions Knowing which species occur on Australia's islands will provide opportunities for future research, including studying changes in biodiversity and species turnover within and among archipelagos, tests of classical island biogeography theory, and as a baseline for ecological monitoring and conservation.
Authors
- David Coleman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1773-6597)
- Mark Westoby (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7690-4530)
- Harold Heatwole (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8918-1714)
- John C. Z. Woinarski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1712-9500)
- Stephen Harris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2556-4756)
- John Neldner
- Betsy R. Jackes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5645-9767)
- Ian J. Wright (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8338-9143)
- Peter Latz
- Stuart Worboys (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6706-4509)
- Rachael V. Gallagher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4680-8115)
- Ralf Buckley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0442-5818)
- Sally Bryant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3200-3578)
- Cornelia Sattler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5779-2641)
- Ken Mills (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6362-4481)
- Julian Schrader (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8392-211X)
- Holger Kreft (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4471-8236)
- Darren M. Crayn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6614-4216)
- Elizabeth Wenk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5640-5910)
- Ian Abbott
- Jamie Kirkpatrick
- Micah Visoiu
- Isabel Zorn
Institutions
- Griffith University (AU)
- Australian National University (AU)
- University of Tasmania (AU)
- Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AU)
- Charles Darwin University (AU)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Queensland Department of Environment and Science (AU)
- Tasmanian Land Conservancy (AU)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture (AU)
- Western Sydney University (AU)
- University of Göttingen (DE)
- James Cook University (AU)
- University of New England (AU)
- Macquarie University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Vegetation Science
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.70019
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.75
Funders
- Biodiversa+
- Macquarie University
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft