Structured Metapopulation Models

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a unified treatment of a large class of deterministic, structured metapopulation models, and illustrates the mathematical framework with several examples. Being deterministic, the models continue to assume an infinite number of patches and local populations, and the results are applicable to large metapopulations. Deterministic metapopulation models with a finite number of patches are concerned with the effect of migration on local dynamics, with a special focus on how migration may synchronize and stabilize local dynamics. The chapter explains the Levin's model as the simplest mathematical model of classical metapopulation dynamics with local population turnover. This simple model captures the key idea of a metapopulation of extinction prone local populations, persisting in a balance between local extinctions and recolonizations of empty habitat patches. The model predicts a threshold patch density necessary for long-term metapopulation persistence, a conclusion that is of fundamental significance for conservation. The chapter also gives a non-mathematical description of the basic principles of modeling structured populations, and shows by examples the kind of results that can be obtained by such models. An empirical example illustrates the relevance of structured models.