Colonization and Collapse

TL;DR

This paper models the dynamics of species colonies that grow and collapse over time, analyzing conditions for survival or extinction using stochastic processes.

Contribution

It introduces new spatial and non-spatial stochastic models for colony dynamics and provides criteria for population survival or extinction.

Findings

Dispersion can influence survival chances.

Conditions for extinction and survival are derived.

Models help understand population fluctuations.

Abstract

Many species live in colonies that thrive for a while and then collapse. Upon collapse very few individuals survive. The survivors start new colonies at other sites that thrive until they collapse, and so on. We introduce spatial and non-spatial stochastic processes for modeling such population dynamic. Besides testing whether dispersion helps survival in a model experiencing large fluctuations, we obtain conditions for the population to get extinct or to survive.