Global Alien Species First Record Database

Abstract

The Global Alien Species First Record Database (GASFiReD) was created to analyse the accumulation of alien species through time in a consistent way across taxonomic groups and regions. A first record denotes the year of first occurrence of an established alien species in a region. The first records were gathered from 102 data sources including online databases, scientific publications, reports and personal collections. The database consists of >45,000 first records of nearly 17,000 species from a broad range of taxonomic groups ranging from vascular plants to marine algae and from mammals to protozoans. Most data are, however, available for vascular plants, mammals, insects, birds and fishes. The first records are available for 282 non-overlapping regions worldwide. While a region mostly relates to countries, many large and biologically important islands were distinguished such as Hawaii, Galapagos, Azores, Sicily, Taiwan, Tasmania etc. The database covers all regions globally with particularly intense sampling in Europe, North America and Oceania. GASFiReD was created and analysed by a team of 45 researchers from countries worldwide. Here, we provide an aggregated version with the annual number of first records per taxonomic group and continent in an excel file.