Effects On Range-expanding Populations
Demographic and mathematical studies demonstrate that the existence of an Allee effect can reduce the speed of range expansion of a population and can even prevent biological invasions.
Recent results based on spatio-temporal models show that the Allee effect can also promote genetic diversity in expanding populations. These results counteract commonly held notions that the Allee effect possesses net adverse consequences. Reducing the growth rate of the individuals ahead of the colonization front simultaneously reduces the speed of colonization and enables a diversity of genes coming from the core of the population to remain on the front. The Allee effect also affects the spatial distribution of diversity. Whereas spatio-temporal models which do not include an Allee effect lead to a vertical pattern of genetic diversity (i.e., a strongly structured spatial distribution of genetic fractions), those including an Allee effect lead to a "horizontal pattern" of genetic diversity (i.e., an absence of genetic differentiation in space).
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