Population Systems, Metapopulations, and Biocomplexity

Abstract

The concepts of population systems, metapopulations, and biocomplexity share similar ideas about the organization of life at the population level, a mandatory element of which is the presence of an internal structure or subdivision into population components connected with each other via a certain level of migration. The subdivision of a population system or a metapopulation into interconnected components allows efficient adaptation and stability of the total system in a varying environment and ensures its far longer life as compared with its individual components. In 1970, Yu.P. Altukhov and Yu.G. Rychkov were the first to substantiate the idea of a systemic organization of populations, or the concept of population systems, as a condition essential for the stable existence of populations in biological species. The results of studying natural population systems, including large groups of isolated human populations, and examining laboratory and computer models are described. A modern theory of metapopulations independently emerged abroad, almost simultaneously with the concept of population systems, and it was intensely developed in recent years in the context of conservation biology. The idea of matter and importance of the biocomplexity of regional population systems and the understanding that it is essential to preserve biocomplexity in the harvesting of commercial species are recognized as an important condition for their resistance to unfavorable anthropogenic and climatic factors.