<strong>An Australian Alien Flora Standardised System (AAFSS) to facilitate management and decision making on biological invasions and biosecurity</strong>

Biological invasions are a major threat to Australia. Information on alien flora in Australia is contributed independently from different jurisdictions, which has led to inconsistencies at the national level, hampering efficient management. To harmonise different information sources, we introduce an Australian Alien Flora Standardised System (AAFSS). The AAFSS includes an R script that compares existing data sources (the Australian Plant Census and state and territory censuses), identifies mismatches among them and, following a detailed prioritisation method, combines the information into a standardised system at the national scale. The derived product is a national system for tracking alien flora in Australia that can aid early warning and prevention of introduced species, facilitate decision-making at national and other jurisdictional levels, and biosecurity at national scale. The system is freely available, easy to use, and ready to be implemented with updated versions of any of the datasets, saving future efforts by keeping track of alien flora across Australia. Individuals who use these data for publication may cite the data paper associated with it: <strong>An Australian Alien Flora Standardised System (AAFSS) to facilitate management and decision making on biological invasions and biosecurity</strong> Martín-Forés, I., Guerin, G.R., Lewis, D., Gallagher, R.V., Vilà, M., Catford, J.A., Pauchard, A. &amp; Sparrow, B.