QUASI-STATIONARY DISTRIBUTIONS OF A STOCHASTIC METAPOPULATION MODEL

A stochastic metapopulation model which explicitly considers first order interactions between local populations is constructed. The model takes the spatial arrangement of patches into account and keeps track of which patches are occupied and which are empty. The time-evolution of the metapopulation is governed by a Markov chain with finite state space. We give a detailed description of the long term behaviour of the Markov chain. Many interesting biological issues can be addressed using the model. As an especially important example we discuss the so-called core and satellite species hypothesis in the light of the model.