What is Metapopulation and Its Characteristics?

The term metapopulation was coined by Richard Lewis in 1970. He described it as a population having several local populations. A metapopulation is considered to be a population of populations. 

What is Metapopulation?

Usually, a species will be distributed over a landscape only when the area can supply a suitable circumstance of habitat. Such habitats in a given area may be fragmented due to living factors that offer suitable places. 

They may be distinct and form almost isolated subpopulations or patches. Each of these patches will have their own dynamics. 

Despite being scattered, these subpopulations are linked by individuals who move from one patch to the other. This kind of subpopulation that is linked by such individual movement is called a metapopulation. 

Characteristics of Metapopulation

Population refers to a group of individuals of the same species who interact with each other and occupy a given habitat. On the other hand, metapopulation refers to the collection of a group of local populations in a larger area that are interlinked. 

In a metapopulation, each local population may be extinct at some point. This creates patches of suitable habitats divided from each other by uninhabitable areas. These uninhabitable patches are crucial to understanding the dynamics of metapopulation. 

Metapopulation is influenced by 

• Connectivity among patches
• The number of patches
• Quality and size of patches
• Healthy migration to uninhabited areas
• A sufficient number of individuals migrating to these uninhabited areas

Extinction of a Metapopulation

The persistence of metapopulation balances the extinction and recolonization of patches. A population is said to be extinct when there is no interaction with others, is separated or isolated from one another, and each subpopulation behaves independently. 

Colonization means migrating from occupied to unoccupied patches. When such a migration rate is higher than the extinction rate, it makes a single continuous population. 

On the other hand, if the migration rate is lower than the extinction rate, the metapopulation will not survive. So the balance between extinction and migration (colonization and recolonization) is crucial for the persistence of the metapopulation. 

Individual Movement in Metapopulation

The spatial arrangement of the landscape and the size of the patch decide the individual’s ability to disperse or move between habitat patches. It also impacts their trait evolution.

Increasing isolation or distancing from nearby patches reduces the rate of colonization. A decreasing patch size risks the extinction of the local population. It is the smaller populations that might become extinct in these situations, but they can compensate by increased rates of recolonization. 

Researchers say that each habitat patch comprises a group of plants and animals, which will become a local community. The group of local communities that interact with each other will become a metacommunity.

References

• Shukla, R.S. and Chandel, P.S. (2001) Plant Ecology. S. Chand and Company Ltd., New Delhi.
• Verma, P.S., Agarwal, V.K. (1999). Cell biology, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Evolution, and Ecology. New Delhi: S.Chand Co.(Pvt) Ltd.

Additional Topics

• Characteristics Of Population Ecology
• Bonte, D., & Bafort, Q. (2018). The importance and adaptive value of life-history evolution for metapopulation dynamics. Journal of Animal Ecology, 88(1), 24-34. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12928