Spatial scale matters for predicting plant invasions along roads

Biological invasions threaten global biodiversity and can have severe economic and social impacts. The complexity of this problem challenges effective management of invasive alien species as the contribution of many factors involved in the invasion processes across different spatial scales is not well understood.
Here, we identify the most important determinants associated with the occurrence of two invasive alien plants, the North American goldenrods (Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea), commonly found in agricultural landscapes of Europe. We used Google Street View images to perform a remote, large-scale inventory of goldenrods along 1,347 roadside transects across Poland. Using open access geospatial data and machine learning techniques, we investigated the relative role of nearly 50 variables potentially affecting the distribution of studied species at five spatial scales (from within 0.25 km to 5 km of the studied locations).
We found that the occurrence of goldenrods along roadsi..., , , # Data from: Spatial scale matters for predicting plant invasions along roads

The file contains data on the occurrence of invasive alien goldenrod species recorded along 1,347 roadside transects in Poland using Google Street View images. The dataset also includes the environmental and human activity related characteristics potentially affecting the distribution of the studied species (i.a. human impacts, climate, soil properties, landscape structure, road parameters, presence of other alien plants).

## Description of the data and file structure

The detailed description of the variables included in the dataset and data sources are provided in the Materials and methods section and in the supplementary material to the article *Spatial scale matters for predicting plant invasions along roads*. Most of the characteristics included in the dataset were measured at five spatial scales, i.e. within buffer zones of 250, 500, 1000, 2000 and 5000 m from the surveyed transects. The scale at which...