The Mediterranean Basin, California, Chile, the western Cape of South Africa and southern Australia share a Mediterranean climate characterized by cool wet winters and hot dry summers. These five regions have differing patterns of human settlement but similarities in natural vegetation and some faunal assemblages. The similarities are being enhanced by an increasing level of biotic exchange between the regions as time passes since European settlement in each region. This unique documentation of the introduced floras and faunas in these five regions of Mediterranean climate both increases our understanding of the ecology of biological invasions, and points the way to more effective management of the biota of these regions. This book is an initiative of a subcommittee of SCOPE (Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) which realized that the integrity of many natural ecosystems was being threatened by the ingress of invasive species.

"...a useful reference for its compiled liss of plant, mammal, and bird species hat have invaded the different Mediterranean regions....should be of interest to anyone intrigued by or working with alien species in a Mediterranean region, or as a reference for analyses of trends in biological invasions among geographic regions." Curtis C. Daehler and Donald R. Strong, Plant Science Bulletin

"...will certainly provide intriguing reading for anyone who is interested in rapidly unfolding biological phenomena." Richard N. Mack, Science

"This important volume should be of wide interest, not only to Mediterranean ecologists and students of biological invasions, but also to anyone whose research involves the structure, function, and stability of ecological communities." Philip W. Rundel, Ecology

"Collectively, the chapters in this book offer an excellent comprehensive overview of invasions in the five mediterranean regions by vascular plants, birds, and mammals....an excellent summary of material on a regionalized and identifiable, albeit geographically widespread ecosystem....will serve as an essential reference for libraries and should be in the possession of anyone who deals with the ecology of invasions or the flora and fauna of any of the meditterranean regions." J. Whitfield Gibbons, Environmental Management