Empire, cultivation, and the environment in Southeast Asia since 1500

Naturalizations have led to homogenization of the Malesian flora in the Anthropocene

“…We recommend using a proxy for collection effort as an offset in temporal analysis, as we have used here, to account for such changes in future studies. When accounting for collection effort (Figure 3b), the first period of introductions, around the 1900s, coincided with the dominance of European colonial empires across the archipelago (Barnard, 2021), mirroring the legacy of European colonialism elsewhere in the world (Lenzner et al., 2022). This led to the introduction of important invasive species (such as Vachellia nilotica and Eichhornia crassipes [Tjitrosoedirdjo et al., 2016]) with significant economic impacts (Nghiem et al., 2013).…”

“…Major trading networks were established throughout the Holocene and into the historic period of Hindu and Islamic kingdom building in the archipelago, leading to the development of the Indian Ocean Corridor and eventually the Maritime silk road, where plant species were one type of goods transported between regions (Bellina, 2022; Fuller et al., 2011). During the colonial era, species were introduced directly due to expanding trade networks and land‐use change (Barnard, 2021). In the pursuit of commodifying plants of economic value within their new territories through botanic gardens and later forestry departments, colonial regimes actively introduced alien plants and facilitated their growth and spread in Malesia (Barnard, 2021).…”

“…During the colonial era, species were introduced directly due to expanding trade networks and land‐use change (Barnard, 2021). In the pursuit of commodifying plants of economic value within their new territories through botanic gardens and later forestry departments, colonial regimes actively introduced alien plants and facilitated their growth and spread in Malesia (Barnard, 2021). Post‐1950, expansion of monocultural plantations, urbanization and globalization (Zhao et al., 2006) further opened up new areas for naturalized taxa to establish within Malesia and improved access to novel source pools for new aliens to be introduced (Seebens et al., 2018).…”