A-Islands: A vascular plant dataset for biodiversity research and species monitoring on Australian continental islands

Australia’s coastline features over 8,000 continental islands with diverse landforms, geology and plant diversity. This repository is for A-Islands, a curated, open-access dataset of >6,500 plant species from 844 islands, compiled from 1,349 species lists and floras. The islands vary in size (18 m²–4,400 km²), isolation, and climate zones, with 251 repeatedly sampled up to 11 times, enabling temporal studies. Its simple structure (three CSV files) allows integration with other databases and supports research on biodiversity, species turnover, island biogeography, and conservation. Continuously updated via version control, A-Islands offers a critical resource for understanding and monitoring Australia’s island ecosystems.

澳大利亚沿岸分布着超过8000个大陆岛屿，其地貌、地质与植物多样性均丰富多样。本仓库面向A-Islands——一个经过精心筛选的开放获取数据集，整合了来自844个岛屿的6500余种植物物种数据，这些数据源自1349份物种名录与植物志。这些岛屿在面积（18平方米至4400平方千米）、隔离程度与气候分区上均存在显著差异，其中251个岛屿被重复采样多达11次，可支持时间序列相关研究。该数据集结构简洁，仅包含3个CSV文件，可与其他数据库集成，能够支撑生物多样性、物种更替、岛屿生物地理学以及生物保护等领域的研究。A-Islands通过版本控制系统持续更新，为认识与监测澳大利亚岛屿生态系统提供了关键的数据资源。