Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 21 April 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5772, pp. 434 - 436
DOI: 10.1126/science.1125317
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Stability via Asynchrony in Drosophila Metapopulations with Low Migration Rates

Sutirth Dey and Amitabh Joshi*

Very few experimental studies have examined how migration rate affects metapopulation dynamics and stability. We studied the dynamics of replicate laboratory metapopulations of Drosophila under different migration rates. Low migration stabilized metapopulation dynamics, while promoting unstable subpopulation dynamics, by inducing asynchrony among neighboring subpopulations. High migration synchronized subpopulation dynamics, thereby destabilizing the metapopulations. Contrary to some theoretical predictions, increased migration did not affect average population size. Simulations based on a simple non–species-specific population growth model captured most features of the data, which suggests that our results are generalizable.

Evolutionary Biology Laboratory, Evolutionary & Organismal Biology Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur P.O., Bangalore 560 064, India.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ajoshi{at}jncasr.ac.in

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Environment, but not migration rate, influences extinction risk in experimental metapopulations.
B. D. Griffen and J. M. Drake (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 4363-4371
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Population synchrony in small-world networks.
E. Ranta, M. S Fowler, and V. Kaitala (2008)
Proc R Soc B 275, 435-442
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Comment on "Stability via Asynchrony in Drosophila Metapopulations with Low Migration Rates"..
E. Ranta and V. Kaitala (2006)
Science 314, 420a
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Response to Comment on "Stability via Asynchrony in Drosophila Metapopulations with Low Migration Rates".
S. Dey and A. Joshi (2006)
Science 314, 420b
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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