Critical Patch Size Generated by Allee Effect in Gypsy Moth, Lymantria dispar (L.)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Keywords
Allee effect, critical area, dispersal, extinction, generalized additive models, gypsy moth, invasion, reaction-diffusion, Voronoi tessellation
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01569.x
Abstract
Allee effects are important dynamical mechanisms in small-density populations in which per capita population growth rate increases with density. When positive density dependence is sufficiently severe (a ‘strong’ Allee effect), a critical density arises below which populations do not persist. For spatially distributed populations subject to dispersal, theory predicts that the occupied area also exhibits a critical threshold for population persistence, but this result has not been confirmed in nature. We tested this prediction in patterns of population persistence across the invasion front of the European gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) in the United States in data collected between 1996 and 2008. Our analysis consistently provided evidence for effects of both population area and density on persistence, as predicted by the general theory, and confirmed here using a mechanistic model developed for the gypsy moth system. We believe this study to be the first empirical documentation of critical patch size induced by an Allee effect.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Ecology Letters, v. 14, issue 2, p. 179-186
Scholar Commons Citation
Vercken, E.; Kramer, A. M.; Tobin, P. C.; and Drake, J. M., "Critical Patch Size Generated by Allee Effect in Gypsy Moth, Lymantria dispar (L.)" (2011). Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications. 526.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/bin_facpub/526
