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A quantitative approach to the stabilizing role of dispersal in metapopulations
Ignacio Bajo1, Alfonso Ruiz-Herrera2
1Departmento Matemática Aplicada II, E.I.T., Universidad de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain.
Abstract:
We study a classical model for a population that reproduces and disperses in a landscape of heterogeneous patches. Under symmetrical dispersal, we provide a sufficient condition to ensure the existence of a globally attracting fixed point. This condition is used in order to prove that certain patches with complex dynamics can be stabilized by the combination with stable patches. Specifically, given a patch with complex dynamics, we estimate the necessary number of patches with simple dynamics so that the whole metapopulation has a globally attracting equilibrium.
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