METAPOPULATION DYNAMICS

Metapopulation biology is concerned with the dynamic consequences of m igration among local populations and the conditions of regional persis tence of species with unstable local populations. Well established eff ects of habitat patch area and Isolation on migration, colonization an d population extinction have now become integrated with classic metapo pulation dynamics. This has led to models that can be used to predict the movement patterns of individuals, the dynamics of species, and the distributional patterns in multispecies communities in real fragmente d landscapes.