The structure of metapopulations varies among species.
First, whereas the early studies tended to focus on evolution in single populations, there is now a significant emphasis in ecological genetics on the population genetic structure of metapopulations and the roles of migration, extinction, and colonization on evolutionary and adaptive processes.
For many species of zooplankton, however, we do not know enough about their distribution or their life cycle within different regions to evaluate the spatial structure of their metapopulations.
Specifically, the model was used to test the hypothesis that patterns in primary productivity, which affect the growth of deer populations, will interact with, and potentially alter, the effects of landscape structure on metapopulation dynamics.
In these models, the structure of the metapopulation that we call the "landscape" (number, size and connectivity of subpopulations) is often static.
However, the landscape and, as a result, the spatial structure of the metapopulation usually do not remain unchanged, thus the assessment of viability must incorporate the dynamic nature of the landscape.
The genetic structure of the metapopulation is consequently homogenized and kin-competition eliminated.
In contrast, long-distance dispersed seeds arriving at already occupied patches have a homogenizing effect on the genetic structure of the metapopulation, thereby decreasing FST [ 17].
To account for the spatial structure of the populations, metapopulation matrices (Am) were constructed (in the following 'empirical metapopulation models').
Although the overall differentiation was small in Sardinia, a significant positive correlation was observed between preference distance Qst and F st (Fig. 5C, r = 0.59, Mantel test, P = 0.02), suggesting that host preference has affected the genetic structure of the weevil metapopulation, or vice versa.
Hence, elimination of much of the metapopulation structure of some species can increase the chance of regional extinction of species.
