Two common features of biological communities are (a) complex interactions among
species, which make community dynamics sensitive to initial conditions, and (b) spatial
heterogeneity, which fragments large—scale ecological systems into a mosaic of patches,
hereafter termed a" metacommunity." This computer simulation study examines the effect of
complex interaction on the global and local dynamics of metacommunities. Patches are
physically identical and differ only in the initial proportion of species that colonize the …