The influence of landscape heterogeneity and local habitat effects on the response to competitive pressures in metapopulations

Ecological modellers move along the continuum between mean-field models and spatially explicit models in order to formally express and test hypotheses regarding the effect of landscape heterogeneity on ecosystem patterns and behaviour, but care must be taken when doing so. With careful and explicit cross-checking between models as their structure evolves and the spatial complexity increases, our understanding of the model assumptions can similarly evolve and reveal otherwise unnoticed dynamics in the modelled system. The patch-occupancy metapopulation model was extended to include a spatially explicit heterogeneous resource substrate, following an incremental series of increasingly complex models using cellular automaton and coupled map lattice techniques. The extension process was monitored to track the meaning of model parameters and the resultant interpretation of relevant ecological processes.