Introduction When culturing bacteria in artificial microhabitats, such as in microfluidic devices, microchambers and microreactors, the ecological and microbiological aspects must be considered. In such devices and experiments cells often live in structured environments that from an ecological viewpoint could be considered “patchy” (i.e. with strong spatial heterogeneities and variations in suitability for the cells).1 In such artificial habitats, the formation of a metapopulation, a set of …