Impact of dispersal on the stability of metapopulations

Eric Tromeur (1, 2, 3) , Lars Rudolf (4) , Thilo Gross (4)

1 AgroParisTech
2 GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée
3 iEES - Institut d'écologie et des sciences de l'environnement de Paris
4 University of Bristol [Bristol]

Dispersal is a key ecological process, that enables local populations to form spatially extended systems called metapopulations. In the present study, we investigate how dispersal affects the linear stability of a general single-species metapopulation model. We discuss both the influence of local within-patch dynamics and the effects of various dispersal behaviors on stability. We find that positive density-dependent dispersal and positive density-dependent settlement are destabilizing dispersal behaviors while negative density-dependent dispersal and negative density-dependent settlement are stabilizing. It is also shown that dispersal has a stabilizing impact on heterogeneous metapopulations that correlates positively with the number of patches and the connectance of metapopulation networks.

Mots clés: generalized modeling; density-dependent dispersal; density-dependent settlement; network topology

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Interactions entre organismes; Ecosystèmes

Eric Tromeur, Lars Rudolf, Thilo Gross. Impact of dispersal on the stability of metapopulations. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2016, 392, pp.1 - 11. ⟨10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.11.029⟩. ⟨hal-01649840⟩