Minimizing the population extinction risk by migration

Many populations in nature are fragmented: they consist of local populations occupying separate patches. A local population is prone to extinction due to the shot noise of birth and death processes. A migrating population from another patch can dramatically delay the extinction. What is the optimal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 109; no. 13; p. 138104
Main Authors Khasin, Michael, Meerson, Baruch, Khain, Evgeniy, Sander, Leonard M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 28.09.2012
Subjects
Animal Migration
Extinction, Biological
Models, Biological
Stochastic Processes
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Summary:Many populations in nature are fragmented: they consist of local populations occupying separate patches. A local population is prone to extinction due to the shot noise of birth and death processes. A migrating population from another patch can dramatically delay the extinction. What is the optimal migration rate that minimizes the extinction risk of the whole population? Here, we answer this question for a connected network of model habitat patches with different carrying capacities.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.138104