Many patch-based metapopulation models assume that the local population within each patch is at its equilibrium and independent of changes in patch occupancy. We studied a metapopulation model that explicitly incorporates the local population dynamics of two competing species. The singular perturbation method is used to separate the fast dynamics of the local competition and the slow process of...

Version 3 The main metrics (Connectivity) Background.–Connectivity refers to the degree to which a landscape facilitates or impedes ecological flows (e.g., the movement of organisms among habitat patches and therefore the rate of movement among local populations in a metapopulation). An abrupt change in the Connectivity of the landscape, for example, as might be caused by habitat loss and fragm...

When modelling metapopulation dynamics, the influence of a single patch on the metapopulation depends on the number of individuals in the patch. Since there is usually no obvious natural upper limit on the number of individuals in a patch, this leads to systems in which there are countably infinitely many possible types of entity. Analogous considerations apply in the transmission of parasitic ...

*Correspondence: Enrico Di Minin, Finnish Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Biology, Department of Biosciences, Biocenter 3, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1), 00014 Helsinki, Finland; School of Life Sciences, Westville Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal, PO Box 54001 (University Road), Durban 4000, South Africa [email protected]; Tuuli Toivonen, Finnish Centre o...

Many patch-based metapopulation models assume that the local population within each patch is at its equilibrium and independent of changes in patch occupancy. We studied a metapopulation model that explicitly incorporates the local population dynamics of two competing species. The singular perturbation method is used to separate the fast dynamics of the local competition and the slow process of...

The transmission of many parasitic worms involves aggregated movement between hosts of "packets" of infectious larvae. We use a generic metapopulation model to show that this aggregation naturally promotes the preferential spread of rare recessive genes, compared with the expectations of traditional nonspatial models. A more biologically realistic model also demonstrates that this effect could ...

A metapopulation model is presented for species which can reach high population densities per patch, and for which migration is such a frequent event that it influences local patch dynamics. Depending on the local dynamics chosen and the way patch extinction is modelled, there can exist stable and bi-stable situations. The model is compared to winking-patch models, and single population models....

The term ‘metapopulation’ is used to describe a population of individuals that live as a group of local populations in geographically separate, but connected, habitat patches. The patches are situated within an otherwise uninhabitable landscape which dispersing individuals traverse in search of suitable habitats. The central concepts associated with metapopulation dynamics are that of local ext...

Many patch-based metapopulation models assume that the local population within each patch is at its equilibrium and independent of changes in patch occupancy. We study a metapopulation model which explicitly incorporates the local population dynamics of two competing species. Singular perturbation method is used to separate the fast dynamics of the local competition and the slow process of patc...