Hello all,
I've been struggling to come up with a simple and intuitive explanation for the
equilibrium result of Levin's simple metapopulation model. This is the model
with internal colonization only. No rescue is possible. That result is
p = 1 - e/c or the equilibrium proportion of patches occupied is determined
solely by the ratio of extinction chance and colonization chance of individual
patches.
The particular situation I wish to describe is when e = c and the
metapopulation goes extinct. This is always puzzling to students because they
reason that if extinction probability just balances colonization probability,
the metapopulation could just hang on as patches are just replaced as they go
extinct.
Does anyone have an easy explanation for this clash between the math and the
mind?
Alan Griffith
/ \
// \\ Alan B. Griffith, Ph.D.
\\ | | // Department of Biological Sciences
\ \`|()|'/ / University of Mary Washington
\_`( )'_/ 1301 College Avenue
/( )\ Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5300
/ ^^ \ 540-654-1422
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