Patches & Extinction

Levins’ metapopulation model

An interactive lesson with 7 steps, about 6 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Levins’ model: $\frac{dp}{dt} = c\,p(1 - D - p) - e\,p$, so $p^* = 1 - D - \frac{e}{c}$.
• A species can go extinct while some of its habitat remains.
• Near the threshold, decline is slow: an extinction debt.

Steps

1. A population of populations
2. The balance
3. Patches winking on and off
4. Destroying habitat
5. Extinction debt
6. Reading the debt
7. Half a landscape