Citation: Sandvik, H., D. Dolmen, R. Elven, T. Falkenhaug, E. Forsgren, H. Hansen, K. Hassel, V. Husa, G. Kjærstad, F. Ødegaard, H. C. Pedersen, H. Solheim, B. G. Stokke, P. A. Åsen, S. Åström, T.-E. Brandrud, H. Elven, A. Endrestøl, A. Finstad, S. Fredriksen, Ø. Gammelmo, J. O. Gjershaug, B. Gulliksen, I. Hamnes, B. A. Hatteland, H. Hegre, T. Hesthagen, A. Jelmert, T. C. Jensen, S. I. Johnsen, E. Karlsbakk, C. Magnusson, K. Nedreaas, B. Nordén, E. Oug, O. Pedersen, P. A. Pedersen, K. Sjøtun, J. K. Skei, H. Solstad, L. Sundheim, J. E. Swenson, P. O. Syvertsen, V. Talgø, V. Vandvik, K. B. Westergaard, R. Wienerroither, B. Ytrehus, O. Hilmo, S. Henriksen, and L. Gederaas (2019) Alien plants, animals, fungi and algae in Norway: an inventory of neobiota [Alien Floras and Faunas, 4]. Biological Invasions, 21, 2997–3012. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-02058-x
Key words: Alien species, casual species, naturalised species, neomycetes, neophytes, neozoa.
Abstract:
We present the results of an inventory and status assessment of alien species in Norway.
The inventory covered all known multicellular neobiota, 2496 in total, 1039 of which were
classified as naturalised. The latter constitute c. 3% of all species known to be stably
reproducing in Norway. These figures are higher than expected from Norway’s latitude, which
may be due a combination of climatic and historical factors, as well as sampling effort.
Most of the naturalised neobiota were plants (71%), followed by animals (21%) and fungi (8%).
The main habitat types colonised were open lowlands (79%), urban environments (52%) and
woodlands (42%). The main areas of origin were Europe (67%), North America (15%) and Asia (13%).
For most taxa, the rate of novel introductions seems to have been increasing during recent decades.
Within Norway, the number of alien species recorded per county was negatively correlated with
latitude and positively correlated with human population density. In the high-Arctic territories
under Norwegian sovereignty, i.e. Svalbard and Jan Mayen, 104 alien species were recorded, of
which 5 were naturalised.
Full text: © 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The original publication is available at Springer Link. It is also freely accessible as a full-text view-only version. Alternatively, if you accept (i) that further reproduction, and all further use other than for personal research, is subject to permission from the publisher (Springer Nature), and (ii) that printouts have to be made on recycled paper, you may download a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the article here (pdf, 0.9 MB).
Supplementary material:
- Online Resource 1 – Inventory of neobiota in Norway (Excel, 0.5 MB)
- Online Resource 2 – Naturalised neobiota in Norwegian counties and European countries (pdf, 0.1 MB)
Related publication: The naturalised and many casual species of this inventory have been assessed for their ecological impact.