  Multiple scales in metapopulations can give rise to paradoxical behaviour: in
a conceptual model for a public goods game, the species associated with a
fitness cost due to the public good production can be stabilised in the
well-mixed limit due to the mere existence of these scales. The scales in this
model involve a length scale corresponding to separate patches, coupled by
mobility, and separate time scales for reproduction and interaction with a
local environment. Contrary to the well-mixed high mobility limit, we find that
for low mobilities, the interaction rate progressively stabilises this species
due to stochastic effects, and that the formation of spatial patterns is not
crucial for this stabilisation.
