Local populations of different sizes, mechanistic rescue effect and patch preference in the Levins metapopulation model

In this paper three extensions of the Levins metapopulation model are discussed: (1) It is shown that the Levins model is still valid if patches contain local populations of different sizes with different colonization and extinction rates. (2) A more mechanistic formulation of the rescue effect is presented. (3) The addition of preference of dispersers for occupied or empty parches and its consequences for conservation strategies are studied. (C) 2000 Society for Mathematical Biology.