Title
Breaking Waves in Population Flows
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
7-11-2011
Description
We test the controversial ideas about the role of corridors in fragmented animal habitats. Using simulation studies we analyze how fragmentation affects a simple prey-predator system and how the introduction of openings that connect the habitats changes the situation. Our individual based model consists of 3 levels: renewable prey food, as well as prey and predators that both have a simple economy. We find, in line with intuition, that the fragmentation of a habitat has a strong negative effect especially on the predator population. Connecting the fragmented habitats facilitates predator (and hence prey) survival, but also leads to an important counterintuitive effect: in the presence of a high quality predator, connected fragmented systems fare better in terms of coexistence than do unfragmented systems. Using a frequency domain analysis we explain how corridors between sub-habitats serve as "wave breakers" in the population flow, thus preventing deadly density waves to occur.
Citation Information
Kampis, George; and Karsai, Istvan. 2011. Breaking Waves in Population Flows. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). Vol.5778 LNAI(PART 2). 102-109. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21314-4_13 ISSN: 0302-9743 ISBN: 9783642213137