On local extinction in a metapopulation

A method is presented to express for a metapopulation the expected local extinction time in an area in the parameters of the full model for the metapopulation. For that purpose the long-term stochastic dynamics of the local population is approximated by a stochastic logistic process fitting the behavior of the local population as it acts in the full system. Moreover, a formula for the occupation rate of the area is derived.