The spatial arrangement of habitat patches in a metapopulation and the dispersal connections among them influence metapopulation persistence. Metapopulation persistence emerges from a dynamic process, namely the serial extinctions and recolonizations of local habitat patches, while measures of persistence are typically based solely on structural properties of the spatial network (e.g., spatial distance between sites). Persistence estimators based on static properties may be unable to capture the dynamic nature of persistence. Understanding the shape of the distribution of extinction times is a central goal in population ecology. Here, we examine the goodness of fit of the power law to patch persistence time distributions using data on a foundational metapopulation system—the Glanville fritillary butterfly in the Åland islands. Further, we address the relationship between structural measures of metapopulation persistence (i.e., metapopulation capacity) and our temporal distributional fits to patch persistence times based on a power law. Patch persistence time distributions were well fit by a power law for the majority of semi-independent networks. Power law fits to persistence time distributions were related to metapopulation capacity, linking structural and temporal measures of metapopulation persistence. Several environmental variables and measures of network topology were correlated with both measures of metapopulation persistence, though correlations tended to be stronger for the structural measure of metapopulation persistence (i.e., metapopulation capacity). Together, our findings suggest that persistence time distributions are useful dynamic properties of metapopulations, and provide evidence of a relationship between metapopulation structure and metapopulation dynamics.

种群中生境斑块的空间排列及其之间的分散联系会影响种群的持久性。种群的持久性来自一个动态过程，即局部生境斑块的系列灭绝和再定殖，而持久性的度量通常仅基于空间网络的结构特性（例如，站点之间的空间距离）。基于静态属性的持久性估计器可能无法捕获持久性的动态性质。了解灭绝时间的分布形状是种群生态学的中心目标。在这里，我们使用基础人口迁移系统（奥兰群岛的格兰维尔贝母蝴蝶）上的数据，检验了幂律适合于修正持续时间分布的好处。进一步，我们讨论了种群持久性的结构性度量（即，种群数量）与基于幂律的补丁持久性的时间分布拟合之间的关系。幂律对大多数半独立网络的补丁持续时间分布非常合适。符合持久性时间分布的幂定律与后代种群的能力有关，联系了后代种群持久性的结构和时间测量。几个环境变量和网络拓扑结构的度量都与这两个种群持久性的度量相关，尽管对于种群持久性的结构度量（即，种群容量），相关性往往更强。总之，我们的研究结果表明持续时间分布是元种群的有用动态特性，