Temporalising nature: Chronologies of colonial species transfer and ecological change across the Indian Ocean in the age of empire

The transfer of plants and animals across the Indian Ocean in the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries transformed the environments of Australia, South Asia and Africa substantially.This article analyses the temporal dimension of these transfers.It examines the ways Europeans perceived time in the context of the transfers and investigates how timeframes were shifted to explain the ecological change caused by introduced species.This article argues that plants and animals brought their own temporal agency to the transoceanic transfers and examines the discrepancies between non-human life rhythms and human expectations.It highlights that the transfers often developed in ways Europeans could not predict.Furthermore, this article deals with the question of how to periodise the history of species transfer and ecological networking.By examining the timescapes of species transfer across the Indian Ocean, it aims to develop new perspectives on the problem of ecological imperialism.