Metapopulation dynamics in a complex ecological landscape

Abstract

We propose a general model to study the interplay between spatial dispersal and environment spatiotemporal fluctuations in metapopulation dynamics. An ecological landscape of favorable patches is generated like a Lévy dust, which allows to build a range of patterns, from dispersed to clustered ones. Locally, the dynamics is driven by a canonical model for the evolution of the population density, consisting of a logistic expression plus multiplicative noises. Spatial coupling is introduced by means of two spreading mechanisms: diffusive dispersion and selective migration driven by patch suitability. We focus on the long-time population size as a function of habitat configurations, environment fluctuations and coupling schemes. We obtain the conditions, that the spatial distribution of favorable patches and the coupling mechanisms must fulfill, to grant population survival. The fundamental phenomenon that we observe is the positive feedback between environment fluctuations and spatial spread preventing extinction.

Connecting metapopulation heterogeneity to aggregated lifetime statistics

“…Analytically, these results can be extracted from approximative expressions based on the theory of first-passage times [1][2][3]7]. For the cases in which φ is described by a Gaussian noise, standard first-passage times techniques find expressions for the mean lifetime which are able to reproduce the form τ ∼ e φ ∼ e K used in the application section [2,8]. However, it has been shown that the use of more sophisticated techniques can improve the preci-sion in cases in which the Fokker-plank approach fails, for instance, when assuming strong and correlated environment fluctuations [2,9,10].…”

“…In this section we solve numerically the spatial explicit model given by Eq. (1.1) assuming a random landscape (randomly distributed patches under periodic boundary conditions) and γ(r) = e −r [8].…”

Population dynamics in an intermittent refuge

“…Moreover, the ecological factors change in time with a characteristic periodicity (seasonality) accompanied by random fluctuations. Then, the environment critical conditions for population survival rely on a combination of the spatial and temporal variability of the environment [7][8][9][10][11].…”

Collective Behavior of Living Beings Under Spatiotemporal Environment Fluctuations

“…Moreover, the ecological factors change in time with a characteristic periodicity (seasonality) accompanied by random fluctuations. Then, the environment critical conditions for population survival rely on a combination of the spatial and temporal variability of the environment [22,35,36,[104][105][106]. Its time variability can have di erent origins.…”

“…Here, we address related fundamental questions in metapopulation theory proposing a model that includes a general dispersion process, incorporating random and selective dispersal strategies. Additionally, we investigate the model dynamics on top of a complex ecological landscape whose spatial structure can be tuned, ranging from spread to aggregated patches [36].…”