Dataset used for analyzing the critical area thresholds for undergoing rapid increases of established non-native terrestrial vertebrates in global islands

Biological invasions are among the threats to global biodiversity and
social sustainability, especially on islands. Identifying the threshold of
area at which non-native species begin to increase abruptly is crucial for
the early prevention strategies. The small-island effect (SIE) was
proposed to quantify the nonlinear relationship between native species
richness and area but has not yet been applied to non-native species and
thus to predict the key breakpoints at which established non-native
species start to increase rapidly. Here, based on the extensive global
dataset including 769 non-native bird, mammal, amphibian, and reptile
species established on 4,277 islands across 54 archipelagos, we detected a
high prevalence of SIEs across 66.7% of archipelagos, and approximately
50% of islands have reached the threshold area and thus may be undergoing
a rapid increase of biological invasions. SIEs were more likely to occur
in those archipelagos with more non-native species introduction events,
more established historical non-native species, lower habitat diversity
and larger archipelago area range. Our findings may have important
implications not only for targeted surveillance of biological invasions on
global islands but also for predicting the responses of both non-native
and native species to ongoing habitat fragmentation under sustained
land-use modification and climate change.