acrylic on canvas
60cm x 60cm
Iain White, 2009
In this classic model these local, often small, populations are subject to periodic chance extinction, but the habitat patches which they occupied may be subsequently recolonised by individuals dispersing from other populations.
As long as the rate of recolonisation matches or exceeds the rate of local extinction, the regional population will persist. Such a 'population of populations', functionally linked and sustained by dispersing individuals is termed a 'metapopulation'.
These paintings follow the convention that the darker hollowed areas represent habitat patches from which local populations have gone extinct, but where nevertheless there remains the possibility of recolonisation from an adjacent patch with an extant local population.
In contrast those occupied habitat patches are shown as the lighter elevated areas connected by lines representing active dispersal routes, or in some species by compatible habitat corridors again facilitating dispersal.
