Analogues of stepping-stone models are considered where the sitespace is continuous, the migration process is a general Markov process, and the type-space is infinite. Such processes were defined in previous work of the second author by specifying a Feller transition semigroup in terms of expectations of suitable functionals for systems of coalescing Markov processes. An alternative representat...

Isolation is a driving factor of species richness and other island community attributes. Most empirical studies have investigated the effect of isolation measured as distance to the nearest continent. Here we expanded this perspective by comparing the explanatory power of seventeen isolation metrics in sixty-eight variations for vascular plant species richness on 453 islands worldwide. Our obje...

Connectivity plays a key role in the effectiveness of MPA networks ensuring metapopulation resilience through gene flow and recruitment effect. Yet, despite its recognized importance for proper network functioning, connectivity is not often assessed very seldomly used marine spatial planning. Here, we combined biophysical modelling with graph theory to identify Mediterranean reserves that suppo...

To understand empirical patterns of phenotypic plasticity, we need to explore the complexities of environmental heterogeneity and how it interacts with cue reliability. I consider both temporal and spatial variation separately and in combination, the timing of temporal variation relative to development, the timing of movement relative to selection, and two different patterns of movement: steppi...

Genetic drift will cause a migration-selection cline to wobble about its expected position. A rough linear approximation is developed, valid when local populations are large. This is used to calculate effects of genetic drift on clines in a stepping-stone model with abrupt and with gradual changes of selection coefficients at a single haploid locus. Among the quantities calculated are measures ...

One of the major distinctions of riparian habitats is their linearity. In linear habitats, gene flow is predicted to follow a one-dimensional stepping stone model, characterized by bidirectional gene flow between neighboring populations. Here, we studied the genetic structure of Myricaria germanica, a threatened riparian shrub which is capable of both wind and water dispersal. Our data led us t...

Repeated games tend to have large sets of equilibria. We also know that in the repeated prisoners dilemma there is a profusion of neutrally stable strategies, but no strategy that is evolutionarily stable. This paper shows that for all of these neutrally stable strategies there is a stepping stone path out; there is always a neutral mutant that can enter a population and create an actual select...

We give combinatorial models for the homotopy type of complements elliptic arrangements (i.e., certain sets abelian subvarieties in a product curves). presentation fundamental group such spaces and, as an application, we treat case ordered configuration curves. Our are finite polyhedral CW complexes, and our tools choice acyclic categories (small without loops). As stepping stone, characterizat...

This article presents an analysis of increasingly political nature the rationales behind memberships UK and Germany in European Higher Education Area (EHEA). is guided by rational-choice neo-institutionalism based on expert interviews with key stakeholders both countries as well their relevant official communications. serves important stepping-stone to investigation link between EHEA its signat...