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A metapopulation model with Markovian landscape dynamics
We study a variant of Hanski's incidence function model that allows habitat
patch characteristics to vary over time following a Markov process. The widely
studied case where patches are classified as either suitable or unsuitable is
included as a special case. For large metapopulations, we determine a recursion
for the probability that a given habitat patch is occupied. This recursion
enables us to clarify the role of landscape dynamics in the survival of a
metapopulation. In particular, we show that landscape dynamics affects the
persistence and equilibrium level of the metapopulation primarily through its
effect on the distribution of a local population's life span.Comment: This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0
license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
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