The concept of metapopulation was first proposed by Levins (1968).
It was then enriched with new ideas and summarised by McQuinn (1997) and
can be defined as : ‘The population structure of many species can be
considered as an array of local populations linked by variable degrees
of gene flow’.
According to Sale et al. (2006), in some cases, stocks may be structured
as “metapopulations” – systems in which local populations (namded sub-
populations or sub-stocks, or components) inhabit discrete habitat patches
and inter-patch dispersal is neither so low as to negate significant demographic
connectivity, nor so high as to eliminate any independence of local population
dynamics.
Levins R (ed.). 1968. Evolution in changing environments. Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
McQuinn IH. 1997. Metapopulations and the Atlantic herring. Reviews
in Fish Biology and Fisheries 7: 297–329.
Sale PF, Hanski I, Kritzer JP (2006). The merging of metapopulation theory and marine ecology: establishing the historical context. In: Kritzer JP, Sale PF (Eds) Marine Metapopulations. Chapter 1. Elsevier, Amsterdam: 3-28