In this video, we're going to answer the question, what is a metapopulation? A metapopulation is really just a group of spatially separated local populations that are all linked together by immigration and emigration, or they're all linked by the migration of individuals out of one local population and into another local population. These metapopulations occur when organisms inhabit smaller patches of habitat within a mostly uninhabitable area. The cool thing about these metapopulations is that if a local population goes extinct for whatever reason, that area may be recolonized by individuals from the metapopulation. So, let's take a look at this image down below so we can better understand these ideas.
Notice that throughout this image, we're looking at these five spatially separated populations of this specific species of bird called the Eurasian blue tit. What you should notice is that collectively, all five of these spatially separated local populations make up the metapopulation only because all five of these populations are linked by immigration and emigration, as you can see indicated by these arrows throughout this image. Once again, if any one of these local populations undergoes extinction, as you can see happening on these two islands here, individuals from the metapopulation can actually recolonize those areas through immigration and emigration. Down below, we have a very important note, which is that local populations are less stable and therefore more likely to go extinct. However, metapopulations tend to be significantly more stable and therefore make the species significantly less likely to become extinct.
This here concludes our lesson on metapopulations, and I'll see you all in our next one.
