Invasive plants are a serious threat to biodiversity, biological invasion is a significant problem in protected areas. In order to control their spread, we need to identify the soil, hydrological and climatic conditions which provide favorable conditions for their occurrence. Soil conditions, such as pH level, organic matter and calcium carbonate content and the rooting depth can influence the occurrence of invasive plant species. Many plant species can be associated with surface water, and thus distance from surface water can also be a determining factor for biological invasion. Mean annual temperature and precipitation are climatic factors that can also influence the spread of invasive plants. We mapped the occurrence one of the most aggressively spreading non-native plants of Eurasia (Ailanthus altissima, Asclepias syriaca, Elaeagnus angustifolia, Robinia pseudoacacia, Solidago spp.) in Hungary, using field photos from the EUROSTAT Land Use and Coverage Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) and CORINE Land Cover databases, and investigated with geostatistical methods (ANOVA test in R statistics) how spatial characteristics of infection are related to soil and climatic characteristics and habitat types of Hungary. We found that all the considered soil, hydrological and climatic factor had significant effect for the spread of the investigated invasive plant species. Our results confirm that environmental preference differs between the examined species, climate change may also have a different role on the occurrence
