The Impact of European Colonialism on Global Plant Redistribution | Bernd Lenzner

The redistribution of alien species worldwide accelerated with the start of European colonialism. European powers were responsible for the deliberate and accidental transportation, introduction and establishment of alien species throughout their occupied territories and the metropolitan state. These activities left a lasting imprint on the global distribution of alien plants as we observe them today.
Recently we could show that the compositional similarity of the alien floras among regions that once were occupied by the same European empire is higher than expected by chance. In addition, this floristic similarity increases the longer a region was occupied. Besides affiliation and time, historically more economically or strategically important regions have more similar alien floras across regions occupied by an empire.
Overall, we find that European colonial history is still detectable in alien floras worldwide and this talk will explore some of the underlying reasons for that.
Bernd Lenzner is a macroecologist and terrestrial ecologist with a strong interest in invasion science, biodiversity change and scenario research including interdisciplinary research at the biodiversity, society and policy interface. At present, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research at the University of Vienna and an expert to the IPBES invasive alien species assessment.
Lead photo: Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia); copyright 'Franz Essl'.
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