Comment on "Stability via asynchrony in Drosophila metapopulations with low migration rates".
Dey and Joshi (Reports, 21 April 2006, p. 434) studied replicate laboratory populations of Drosophila and reported that low migration led to asynchrony among subpopulations. We argue that this unexpected outcome may be due to variation in the initial size of the subpopulations and uncontrolled stochasticity in the experiments.
Ranta
Esa
E
Integrative Ecology Unit, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 65 (Viikinkaari 1), FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. esa.ranta@helsinki.fi
Kaitala
Veijo
V
D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011158:Population Growth; D013269:Stochastic Processes