The evolution characters of the best competitor of metapopulation

LIN ZhenShan1,Larry Li2(1.The Department of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097;2.Ecological Complexity and Modeling Lab., University of California, Riverside. CA 925210124, USA).  

Loss of habitat due to human activities is a major threat to biological diversity, and habitat destruction may be the major reason of species extinctions. The fragmentation of natural habitat is the primary cause of current species extinction crisis. The predictions are made by an extension of metapopulation models to multispecies competition. Two points of interest and important questions are: what effects will be exerted on the best competitor of metapopulation by a light habitat destruction? What effects will be exerted on the inferior competitors by the superior competitors when the habitat is destructed ? By mathematic analysis, we discover the relation between the number of extinct species and the habitat destruction ratio under the critical restriction condition. The considerable numerical simulations show the following results under the condition of best competitors with most abundant, equal mortality: (1) both coordinate evolution and coordinate degeneration are existed in metapopulation when habitat destruct lightly; (2) if the best competitor is not strong enough,it will degenerate as a poor one while species n2 will evolve as the best competitor as the habitat is destructed lightly;(3) if the best competitor is very strong,it will be the internal cause which driving the poor competitors extinct;(4) There exists two mechanisms of species extinction or metapopulation as habitat destruction, that is the best competitor goes extinct or the poor competitors go collective extinction. 

【Fund】： 国家"十五""211"工程重大资助项目~~
【CateGory Index】： Q948.15

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