Landmarking and strong Allee thresholds |
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Authors: | Kim Cuddington Z Tasker Hull Warren J S Currie Marten A Koops |
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Institution: | 1.Department of Biology,University of Waterloo,Waterloo,Canada;2.Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada,Burlington,Canada |
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Abstract: | Mate-finding difficulties in small populations are often postulated to create strong demographic Allee effects that increase the probability of extinction of native species or, similarly, decrease the probability that non-native species will successfully invade. Many species make use of a restricted number of mating locations, detectable from long-distance, that are not selected for habitat reasons (e.g., hilltopping in butterflies). This ‘landmarking’ strategy may specifically address the problem of overcoming mate-finding difficulties. Using a variant of the birthday problem, we demonstrate that populations which locate a restricted number of mate-finding sites using landmark features may have high probability of successful mating even at very low population densities. Therefore, a strong Allee threshold, if it exists, may be very small, and non-native species that make use of this strategy may have a very good chance of population establishment at low density. |
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