A peer-reviewed open-access journal NeoBiota 45: 93–115 (2019) Alien plants in Central European river ports 93 doi: 10.3897/neobiota.45.33866 RESEARCH ARTICLE NeoBiota http://neobiota.pensoft.net Advancing research on alien species and biological invasions Alien plants in Central European river ports Vladimír Jehlík1, Jiří Dostálek2, Tomáš Frantík3 1 V Lesíčku 1, 150 00 Praha 5 – Smíchov, Czech Republic 2 Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, CZ-252 43 Průhonice, Czech Republic 3 Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-252 43 Průhonice, Czech Republic Corresponding author: Jiří Dostálek (
[email protected]) Academic editor: Ingo Kowarik | Received 14 February 2019 | Accepted 27 March 2019 | Published 7 May 2019 Citation: Jehlík V, Dostálek J, Frantík T (2019) Alien plants in Central European river ports. NeoBiota 45: 93–115. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.45.33866 Abstract River ports represent a special type of urbanized area. They are considered to be an important driver of biological invasion and biotic homogenization on a global scale, but it remains unclear how and to what degree they serve as a pool of alien species. Data for 54 river ports (16 German, 20 Czech, 7 Hungarian, 3 Slovak, and 8 Austrian ports) on two important Central European waterways (the Elbe-Vltava and Dan- ube waterways) were collected over 40 years. In total, 1056 plant species were found. Of these, 433 were alien, representing 41% of the total number of species found in all the studied Elbe, Vltava, and Danube ports. During comparison of floristic data from literary sources significant differences in the percentage of alien species in ports (50%) and cities (38%) were found.