Abstract
This chapter presents a case study of a plant metapopulation. The plant, Silene dioica, is a dioecious perennial and a component of early stages of primary succession in northern Scandinavia. This study was carried out on islands in an area of the Baltic Sea, subject to land uplift so that new islands are continuously, though slowly, being formed. The rate of land uplift allows the ages of the island populations to be estimated; the successional processes together with the continual creation of new islands imply that population turnover must occur. The observed changes in genetic differentiation among these groups were compared with those predicted by metapopulation models. The predicted effects of spatial and temporal heterogeneity on genetic structuring resulting from metapopulation dynamics were tested, and also confirmed in many cases. This chapter begins with a short review of the genetic theory of metapopulations to contrast the differences in the assumptions and questions of the ecological and genetics models. The results of the study are then presented, followed by a review of other genetic studies of metapopulations.
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