Spatial heterogeneity greatly affects the population spread. Although the theory forbiological invasion in heterogeneous spatially continuous habitats have receivedconsiderable attention, spatially discrete models have remained outside of the mainstream.In this study, we formulate and analyze a Coupled Map Lattice model for a single speciespopulation invading a two dimensional heterogeneous environment. The population growthrate and dispersal coefficient depend on the site quality. We first find an analyticalcriterium for the spread success in terms of the population growth rate and the dispersalcoefficient in unfavorable regions. We then implemented our model for two distinct spatialconfigurations: periodical stripe-like and randomized environments. The spread rate iscomputed numerically and it shows a decrease with an increase of the fraction of thehostile sites. However, we observed that invasion success does not depend on the fractionof favorable sites but crucially depends on the connectivity of favorable regions.
