TY - JOUR
T1 - Dispersal-induced resilience to stochastic environmental fluctuations in populations with Allee effect
AU - Crespo-Miguel, Rodrigo
AU - Jarillo, Javier
AU - Cao-García, Francisco J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge Daniel Oro and Bernt-Erik Saether for their comments on the paper. This work was financially supported by Project No. 817578 TRIATLAS of the Horizon 2020 Programme (EU). F.J.C.-G. acknowledges financial support through Grants No. UCM-EEA-ABEL-02-2009 and No. 005-ABEL-CM2014A of the European Economic Area (EEA) under the NILS–Science and Sustainability Programme; SUSTAIN and SFF-III Grant No. 223257/F50 of the Research Council of Norway; Grants No. FIS2010-17440 and No. FIS2006-05895 of Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain); Grants No. FIS2015-67745-R (MINECO/FEDER) and No. RTI2018-095802-B-I00 of Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, EU); and Grants No. GR35/14-920911, No. GR35/10-A-920911, and No. GR58/08-920911 of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Banco Santander (Spain).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Physical Society.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Many species are unsustainable at small population densities (Allee effect); i.e., below the so-called Allee threshold, the population decreases instead of growing. In a closed local population, environmental fluctuations always lead to extinction. Here, we show how, in spatially extended habitats, dispersal can lead to a sustainable population in a region, provided the amplitude of environmental fluctuations is below an extinction threshold. We have identified two types of sustainable populations: high-density and low-density populations (through a mean-field approximation, valid in the limit of large dispersal length). Our results show that patches where population is high, low, or extinct coexist when the population is close to global extinction (even for homogeneous habitats). The extinction threshold is maximum for characteristic dispersal distances much larger than the spatial scale of synchrony of environmental fluctuations. The extinction threshold increases proportionally to the square root of the dispersal rate and decreases with the Allee threshold. The low-population-density solution can allow understanding of difficulties in recovery after harvesting. This theoretical framework provides a unique approach to address other factors, such as habitat fragmentation or harvesting, impacting population resilience to environmental fluctuations.
AB - Many species are unsustainable at small population densities (Allee effect); i.e., below the so-called Allee threshold, the population decreases instead of growing. In a closed local population, environmental fluctuations always lead to extinction. Here, we show how, in spatially extended habitats, dispersal can lead to a sustainable population in a region, provided the amplitude of environmental fluctuations is below an extinction threshold. We have identified two types of sustainable populations: high-density and low-density populations (through a mean-field approximation, valid in the limit of large dispersal length). Our results show that patches where population is high, low, or extinct coexist when the population is close to global extinction (even for homogeneous habitats). The extinction threshold is maximum for characteristic dispersal distances much larger than the spatial scale of synchrony of environmental fluctuations. The extinction threshold increases proportionally to the square root of the dispersal rate and decreases with the Allee threshold. The low-population-density solution can allow understanding of difficulties in recovery after harvesting. This theoretical framework provides a unique approach to address other factors, such as habitat fragmentation or harvesting, impacting population resilience to environmental fluctuations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124645388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.105.014413
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.105.014413
M3 - Article
C2 - 35193202
AN - SCOPUS:85124645388
SN - 2470-0045
VL - 105
JO - Physical Review E
JF - Physical Review E
IS - 1
M1 - 014413
ER -