Invasive alien plants of Russia : insights from regional inventories

Abstract

Recent research on plant invasions indicates that some parts of the world are understudied with temperate Asia among them. To contribute towards closing this gap, we provide a standardized list of invasive alien plant species with their distributions in 45 Russian regions, and relate the variation in their richness to climate, socioeconomic parameters and human influence. In total, we report 354 invasive alien species. There are, on average, 27 ± 17 (mean± SD) invasive plants per region, and the invasive species richness varies from zero in Karelia to 71 in Kaluga. In the European part of Russia, there are 277 invasive species in total, in Siberia 70, and in the Far East 79. The most widespread invaders are, in terms of the number of regions from which they are reported, Acer negundo, Echinocystis lobata (recorded in 34 regions), Erigeron canadensis and Elodea canadensis (recorded in 30 regions). Most invasive species in Russia originate from other parts of temperate Asia and Europe. There were significant differences in the representation of life forms between the European, Siberian and Far East biogeographical regions, with perennials being over-represented in the Far East, and shrubs in the European part of Russia. The richness of invasive species can be explained by climatic factors, human population density and the percentage of urban population in a region. This publication and the associated dataset is the first comprehensive treatment of the invasive flora of Russia using standardized criteria and covering 83% of the territory of this country.