• Skip to content (access key 1)
  • Skip to search (access key 7)
FWF — Austrian Science Fund
  • Go to overview page Discover

    • Research Radar
    • Discoveries
      • Emmanuelle Charpentier
      • Adrian Constantin
      • Monika Henzinger
      • Ferenc Krausz
      • Wolfgang Lutz
      • Walter Pohl
      • Christa Schleper
      • Anton Zeilinger
    • scilog Magazine
    • Awards
      • FWF Wittgenstein Awards
      • FWF START Awards
    • excellent=austria
      • Clusters of Excellence
      • Emerging Fields
    • In the Spotlight
      • 40 Years of Erwin Schrödinger Fellowships
      • Quantum Austria
    • Dialogs and Talks
      • think.beyond Summit
    • E-Book Library
  • Go to overview page Funding

    • Portfolio
      • excellent=austria
        • Clusters of Excellence
        • Emerging Fields
      • Projects
        • Principal Investigator Projects
        • Principal Investigator Projects International
        • Clinical Research
        • 1000 Ideas
        • Arts-Based Research
        • FWF Wittgenstein Award
      • Careers
        • ESPRIT
        • FWF ASTRA Awards
        • Erwin Schrödinger
        • Elise Richter
        • Elise Richter PEEK
        • doc.funds
        • doc.funds.connect
      • Collaborations
        • Specialized Research Groups
        • Special Research Areas
        • Research Groups
        • International – Multilateral Initiatives
        • #ConnectingMinds
      • Communication
        • Top Citizen Science
        • Science Communication
        • Book Publications
        • Digital Publications
        • Open-Access Block Grant
      • Subject-Specific Funding
        • AI Mission Austria
        • Belmont Forum
        • ERA-NET HERA
        • ERA-NET NORFACE
        • ERA-NET QuantERA
        • ERA-NET TRANSCAN
        • Alternative Methods to Animal Testing
        • European Partnership Biodiversa+
        • European Partnership ERA4Health
        • European Partnership ERDERA
        • European Partnership EUPAHW
        • European Partnership FutureFoodS
        • European Partnership OHAMR
        • European Partnership PerMed
        • European Partnership Water4All
        • Gottfried and Vera Weiss Award
        • netidee SCIENCE
        • Herzfelder Foundation Projects
        • Quantum Austria
        • Rückenwind Funding Bonus
        • WE&ME Award
        • Zero Emissions Award
      • International Collaborations
        • Belgium/Flanders
        • Germany
        • France
        • Italy/South Tyrol
        • Japan
        • Luxembourg
        • Poland
        • Switzerland
        • Slovenia
        • Taiwan
        • Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino
        • Czech Republic
        • Hungary
    • Step by Step
      • Find Funding
      • Submitting Your Application
      • International Peer Review
      • Funding Decisions
      • Carrying out Your Project
      • Closing Your Project
      • Further Information
        • Integrity and Ethics
        • Inclusion
        • Applying from Abroad
        • Personnel Costs
        • PROFI
        • Final Project Reports
        • Final Project Report Survey
    • FAQ
      • Project Phase PROFI
        • Accounting for Approved Funds
        • Labor and Social Law
        • Project Management
      • Project Phase Ad Personam
        • Accounting for Approved Funds
        • Labor and Social Law
        • Project Management
      • Expiring Programs
        • FWF START Awards
  • Go to overview page About Us

    • Mission Statement
    • FWF Video
    • Values
    • Facts and Figures
    • Annual Report
    • What We Do
      • Research Funding
        • Matching Funds Initiative
      • International Collaborations
      • Studies and Publications
      • Equal Opportunities and Diversity
        • Objectives and Principles
        • Measures
        • Creating Awareness of Bias in the Review Process
        • Terms and Definitions
        • Your Career in Cutting-Edge Research
      • Open Science
        • Open Access Policy
          • Open Access Policy for Peer-Reviewed Publications
          • Open Access Policy for Peer-Reviewed Book Publications
          • Open Access Policy for Research Data
        • Research Data Management
        • Citizen Science
        • Open Science Infrastructures
        • Open Science Funding
      • Evaluations and Quality Assurance
      • Academic Integrity
      • Science Communication
      • Philanthropy
      • Sustainability
    • History
    • Legal Basis
    • Organization
      • Executive Bodies
        • Executive Board
        • Supervisory Board
        • Assembly of Delegates
        • Scientific Board
        • Juries
      • FWF Office
    • Jobs at FWF
  • Go to overview page News

    • News
    • Press
      • Logos
    • Calendar
      • Post an Event
      • FWF Informational Events
    • Job Openings
      • Enter Job Opening
    • Newsletter
  • Discovering
    what
    matters.

    FWF-Newsletter Press-Newsletter Calendar-Newsletter Job-Newsletter scilog-Newsletter

    SOCIAL MEDIA

    • LinkedIn, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Twitter, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Facebook, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Instagram, external URL, opens in a new window
    • YouTube, external URL, opens in a new window

    SCILOG

    • Scilog — The science magazine of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
  • elane login, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Scilog external URL, opens in a new window
  • de Wechsle zu Deutsch

  

Advancing the understanding of global plant invasions

Advancing the understanding of global plant invasions

Franz Essl (ORCID: 0000-0001-8253-2112)
  • Grant DOI 10.55776/I5825
  • Funding program Principal Investigator Projects International
  • Status ongoing
  • Start October 1, 2022
  • End September 30, 2025
  • Funding amount € 364,528
  • E-mail

Weave: Österreich - Belgien - Deutschland - Luxemburg - Polen - Schweiz - Slowenien - Tschechien

Disciplines

Biology (60%); Geosciences (40%)

Keywords

    Biological Invasions, Macroecology, Biogeography, Biodiversity, Vascular Plants, Global Change

Abstract

Humans have deliberately and undeliberately introduced many species from their native regions into regions where they did not previously occur. Some of these species have become naturalized, and some of those have become invasive. However, only in the last couple of years, the global extent patterns and processes of such biological invasions have started to emerge. This has been possible through large-scale collaborative initiatives such as the Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database, funded by the DFG and FWF. The GloNAF database currently includes entries of 16,564 alien vascular plant species in 1388 regions. In this new follow-up proposal, we want to continue updating and expanding GloNAF. We will use the database to test how threat status and commonness in the native range relate to naturalization elsewhere. This will be done by combining GloNAF with the ThreatSearch database and with multiple datasets on changes in distributions of native species in different parts of Europe. Furthermore, by using resurveyed vegetation relevé data from the recently established ResurveyEurope initiative, we will assess small scale patterns and drivers of changes in alien and native plant species richness and composition in plant communities of Europe. By using the novel Global Alien Pathogenic Fungi database, we will analyze the interactions of plant invasions and alien pathogenic fungi. Finally, we will use species distribution modelling on all naturalized species with sufficient occurrence records in GBIF to quantify naturalization debts and the potential global ranges of alien species. These studies will further advance our understanding of local and global plant invasions and their impacts on biodiversity.

Research institution(s)
  • Universität Wien - 100%
Project participants
  • Bernd Lenzner, Universität Wien , national collaboration partner
  • Dietmar Moser, Universität Wien , national collaboration partner
  • Stefan Dullinger, Universität Wien , national collaboration partner
International project participants
  • Ute Jandt, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg - Germany
  • Kleunen Mark Van, Universität Konstanz - Germany, international project partner
  • Helge Bruelheide, Universität Leipzig - Germany

Research Output

  • 93 Citations
  • 15 Publications
Publications
  • 2023
    Title Potential sources of time lags in calibrating species distribution models
    DOI 10.1111/jbi.14726
    Type Journal Article
    Author Essl F
    Journal Journal of Biogeography
    Pages 89-102
    Link Publication
  • 2023
    Title The poleward naturalization of intracontinental alien plants
    DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adi1897
    Type Journal Article
    Author Zhang Z
    Journal Science Advances
    Link Publication
  • 2023
    Title Austrian farmers perception of new weeds
    DOI 10.1002/pei3.10129
    Type Journal Article
    Author Glaser M
    Journal Plant-Environment Interactions
    Link Publication
  • 2023
    Title Climatic stability and geological history shape global centers of neo- and paleoendemism in seed plants
    DOI 10.1073/pnas.2300981120
    Type Journal Article
    Author Cai L
    Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    Link Publication
  • 2022
    Title No species loss, but pronounced species turnover in grasslands in the Northern Alps over 25 years
    DOI 10.1111/avsc.12700
    Type Journal Article
    Author Schwaiger H
    Journal Applied Vegetation Science
    Link Publication
  • 2024
    Title Threatened Mammals With Alien Populations: Distribution, Causes, and Conservation
    DOI 10.1111/conl.13069
    Type Journal Article
    Author Tedeschi L
    Journal Conservation Letters
    Link Publication
  • 2025
    Title The global distribution patterns of alien vertebrate richness in mountains
    DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-57214-w
    Type Journal Article
    Author García-Rodríguez A
    Journal Nature Communications
    Pages 1977
    Link Publication
  • 2025
    Title GUBIC: The global urban biological invasions compendium for plants
    DOI 10.1002/2688-8319.70020
    Type Journal Article
    Author Li D
    Journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence
    Link Publication
  • 2025
    Title World-wide impacts of climate change and nitrogen deposition on vegetation structure, composition, and functioning of shrublands
    DOI 10.1111/nph.70235
    Type Journal Article
    Author Liu D
    Journal New Phytologist
    Link Publication
  • 2025
    Title Threatened Aquatic Plants of the Southern Tigris-Euphrates Basin: Status, Threats, and Conservation Priorities
    DOI 10.3390/plants14131914
    Type Journal Article
    Author Naser M
    Journal Plants
    Pages 1914
    Link Publication
  • 2024
    Title Global indicators of the environmental impacts of invasive alien species and their information adequacy
    DOI 10.1098/rstb.2023.0323
    Type Journal Article
    Author Henriksen M
    Journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
    Pages 20230323
    Link Publication
  • 2024
    Title Invasion risk of the currently cultivated alien flora in southern Africa is predicted to decline under climate change
    DOI 10.1111/ecog.07010
    Type Journal Article
    Author Omer A
    Journal Ecography
    Link Publication
  • 2024
    Title A synthesis on alien mammals threatened in their native range
    DOI 10.1101/2024.03.04.582492
    Type Preprint
    Author Tedeschi L
    Pages 2024.03.04.582492
    Link Publication
  • 2024
    Title Plant invasion and naturalization are influenced by genome size, ecology and economic use globally
    DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-45667-4
    Type Journal Article
    Author Guo K
    Journal Nature Communications
    Pages 1330
    Link Publication
  • 2023
    Title Long-term trajectories of non-native vegetation on islands globally
    DOI 10.1111/ele.14196
    Type Journal Article
    Author Walentowitz A
    Journal Ecology Letters
    Pages 729-741
    Link Publication

Discovering
what
matters.

Newsletter

FWF-Newsletter Press-Newsletter Calendar-Newsletter Job-Newsletter scilog-Newsletter

Contact

Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Georg-Coch-Platz 2
(Entrance Wiesingerstraße 4)
1010 Vienna

office(at)fwf.ac.at
+43 1 505 67 40

General information

  • Job Openings
  • Jobs at FWF
  • Press
  • Philanthropy
  • scilog
  • FWF Office
  • Social Media Directory
  • LinkedIn, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Twitter, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Facebook, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Instagram, external URL, opens in a new window
  • YouTube, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Cookies
  • Whistleblowing/Complaints Management
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Data Protection
  • Acknowledgements
  • Social Media Directory
  • © Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF
© Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF