ABSTRACT

A metapopulation consists of a group of spatially separated populations which interact through rare migration events. Metapopulations are most affected by rates of colonization and extinction by a species in a patch. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect on a metapopulation when turtles with a microbe traverse between local populations (ponds). To conduct this experiment, the software NetLogo is used to create agent-based models which simulates the microbial dispersion between 2 ponds with host turtles acting as dispersal mechanism. Observation of the results evinced that the more distant the ponds were from one another, the more difficult it was for the microbe to reach other ponds via turtle movement. This experiment substantiated that metapopulations are more stable and less likely to go extinct than single local populations.