  This article is concerned with a stochastic multi-patch model in which each
local population is subject to a strong Allee effect. The model is obtained by
using the framework of interacting particle systems to extend a stochastic
two-patch model that has been recently introduced by Kang and the author. The
main objective is to understand the effect of the geometry of the network of
interactions, which represents potential migrations between patches, on the
long-term behavior of the metapopulation. In the limit as the number of patches
tends to infinity, there is a critical value for the Allee threshold below
which the metapopulation expands and above which the metapopulation goes
extinct. Spatial simulations on large regular graphs suggest that this critical
value strongly depends on the initial distribution when the degree of the
network is large whereas the critical value does not depend on the initial
distribution when the degree is small. Looking at the system starting with a
single occupied patch on the complete graph and on the ring, we prove
analytical results that support this conjecture. From an ecological
perspective, these results indicate that, upon arrival of an alien species
subject to a strong Allee effect to a new area, though dispersal is necessary
for its expansion, strong long range dispersal drives the population toward
extinction.
