9532079 With Metapopulation theory is one of the underlying paradigms of conservation biology. Patch-based models, such as metapopulation theory, deal with spatial complexity in a simplistic fashion to render the models analytically tractable. This research will couple a generalized hierarchical model of population structure with neutral landscape models to provide a unifying framework for understanding population dynamics in patchy environments. Neutral landscape models are a key element in the development of generalized spatially explicit theory of population responses to landscape structure. The specific goals of this research are to investigate the demographic consequences of habitat fragmentation by (1) varying life-history and dispersal parameters of species in spatially complex landscapes and searching for extinction thresholds, (2) assessing how the scale of habitat fragmentation interacts with the demographic potential and dispersal abilities of species as detected by shifts in extinction thresholds, and (3) comparing how extinction thresholds relate to critical thresholds in landscape connectivity. Percolation theory has served as a model framework for understanding the dispersion of species in complex landscapes. This research is unique because it unites in one modeling approach population biology, landscape ecology and conservation biology within an expanded framework defined by percolation modeling.
