<b>The Alien Flora of Australia (AFA), a unified Australian national dataset on plant invasion</b>

Biological invasions are a major threat to Australia. Information on alien flora in Australia is collated independently by different jurisdictions, which has led to inconsistencies at the national level, hampering efficient management. To harmonise different information sources, we present the Alien Flora of Australia (AFA), a nationally unified dataset. To create the AFA, we developed an R script that compares existing data sources (the Australian Plant Census and state and territory censuses), identifies mismatches among them and integrates the information into unified invasion statuses at the national scale. The AFA follows the taxonomy and nomenclature adopted for the Australian Plant Census, introduction status and impact of plants known to occur in Australia. The up-to-date information presented in this dataset can aid early warning of alien species invasions, facilitate decision-making at different levels, and biosecurity at national scale. The associated script is ready to be implemented into new versions of the AFA with updated releases of any of the data sources, streamlining future efforts to track of alien flora across Australia. Individuals who use these data for publication may cite the data papers associated with it:<br>Martín-Forés, I., Guerin, G.R., Lewis, D., Gallagher, R.V., Vilà, M., Catford, J.A., Pauchard, A. &amp; Sparrow, B. (2023) <b>The Alien Flora of Australia (AFA), a unified Australian national dataset on plant invasion. </b><i>Nature Scientific Data </i>(accepted)<b>Towards integrating and standardising information on plant invasions across Australia</b><br>Martín-Forés, I., Guerin, G.R., Lewis, D., Gallagher, R.V., Vilà, M., Catford, J.A., Pauchard, A. &amp; Sparrow, B. <i>Neobiota </i>(under review). Preprint at https://doi.org/10.32942/X23C70 (2023)生物入侵是澳大利亚面临的重大威胁之一。澳大利亚各州及领地各自独立汇编本国外来植物相关信息，这导致国家级层面的数据存在不一致性，制约了高效管理工作的开展。为统一各类信息源，本研究构建了澳大利亚外来植物数据集（Alien Flora of Australia, AFA），这是一套国家级统一数据集。为构建该数据集，我们开发了一套R脚本，用于比对现有数据源（澳大利亚植物普查（Australian Plant Census）及各州/领地植物普查数据），识别其间的不一致之处，并将相关信息整合为国家级尺度下统一的入侵状态。该数据集遵循澳大利亚植物普查所采用的分类学与命名规范，涵盖澳大利亚境内已知植物的引入状态与影响信息。本数据集所载的最新信息可助力外来物种入侵的早期预警，推动各级决策制定，并强化国家级尺度下的生物安全防控工作。配套脚本已就绪，可随任意数据源的更新版本适配至澳大利亚外来植物数据集的新版中，简化未来全澳范围内外来植物的监测工作。若使用者基于本数据集开展学术发表，请引用如下相关数据论文：<br>Martín-Forés, I., Guerin, G.R., Lewis, D., Gallagher, R.V., Vilà, M., Catford, J.A., Pauchard, A. & Sparrow, B. (2023) 《澳大利亚外来植物数据集（AFA）：一套统一的国家级植物入侵数据集》，*Nature Scientific Data*（已录用）；《整合并标准化全澳植物入侵相关信息》<br>Martín-Forés, I., Guerin, G.R., Lewis, D., Gallagher, R.V., Vilà, M., Catford, J.A., Pauchard, A. & Sparrow, B.，*Neobiota*（已投稿待审）。预印本链接：https://doi.org/10.32942/X23C70 (2023)