BioConcepts

metapopulationMetapopulation (ger.)

• 1) A collection of interacting subpopulations of a species. (Oxford Dict. of Biology 2008)
  category population

  1970

  Our basic proposition is that a species can be regarded as a population of populations […]

  the metapopulation equilibrium […] adjusts the extinction rate to equal the migration rate.

  Levins, R. (1970). Extinction. In: Some Mathematical Questions in Biology. Lectures on Mathematics in the Life Sciences, vol. 2, 77-107: 77; 93.

  1973

  A cluster of populations belonging to the same species may be called a metapopulation. The metapopulation is most fruitfully conceived as an amebalike entity spread over a fixed number of patches (Levins 1970).

  Wilson, E.O. (1973). Group selection and its significance for ecology. BioScience 23, 631-638: 631-2.
  

• 2) An aggregation of organic parts that comprise, or are derived from, a single genetic individual.
  category population

  1979

  It seems desirable to retain the word population for collections of genetically distinct organisms and to coin a modified term for aggregations of parts that comprise, or are derived from, a single genetic individual. The term metapopulation is suggested, since the classical etymology of meta- expresses the notion of ‘sharing, action in common’

  White, J. (1979). The plant as a metapopulation. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 10, 109-145: 110.