Mapping the distribution of weeds in Great Britain in relation to national survey data and to soil type

A method is presented for using botanical survey and soil survey data to generate maps of the probability of occurrence of weeds in Britain across all habitats. For each species, data from a national, designed botanical survey were smoothed spatially, and the association between species distribution and soils was calculated using the botanical survey and 1 km square data on dominant and subdominant soils using national data. A logistic regression was fitted using the botanical survey data, and was interpolated across the whole country to generate the maps. The resulting maps show the probability of occurrence of species and species groups at the 2‐km scale. They map the potential, rather than realized, risk of particular types of weed infestation, as they do not account for local management factors.