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Science 17 November 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5495, pp. 1360 - 1364
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5495.1360
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Reports

Coherence and Conservation

David J. D. Earn,1* Simon A. Levin,2 Pejman Rohani3

A principal aim of current conservation policy is to reduce the impact of habitat fragmentation. Conservation corridors may achieve this goal by facilitating movement among isolated patches, but there is a risk that increased connectivity could synchronize local population fluctuations (causing coherent oscillations) and thereby increase the danger of global extinction. We identify general conditions under which populations can or cannot undergo coherent oscillations, and we relate these conditions to local and global extinction probabilities. We suggest a simple method to explore the potential success of conservation corridors and, more generally, any manipulations of dispersal patterns that aim to protect threatened species or control pests.

1 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4K1.
2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton NJ, 08544 USA.
3 Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: earn{at}math.mcmaster.ca

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)