QUASI-STATIONARY DISTRIBUTIONS OF A STOCHASTIC METAPOPULATION MODEL

A stochastic metapopulation model which explicitly considers first ord er interactions between local populations is constructed. The model ta kes the spatial arrangement of patches into account and keeps track of which patches are occupied and which are empty. The time-evolution of the metapopulation is governed by a Markov chain with finite state sp ace. We give a detailed description of the long term behaviour of the Markov chain. Many interesting biological issues can be addressed usin g the model. As an especially important example we discuss the so-call ed core and satellite species hypothesis in the light of the model.