INSPIRE Track 1::From population ecology to physics and back: understanding spatiotemporal synchrony using Ising class phase transitions in noisy dissipative models

INSPIRE奖的部分资金由生物科学局环境生物学部的人口与社区生态项目、生物科学局的新兴前沿项目、数学与物理科学局材料研究部的凝聚态物质与材料理论项目和多学科活动办公室以及综合活动办公室提供。空间和时间变异在从物理学到生态学的许多研究领域都很常见。在所有领域，了解跨空间的动态是很重要的：在什么条件下跨空间的动态是同步的，什么时候缺乏空间一致性？一个多世纪以来，生态学家一直在努力理解空间同步性，部分原因是缺乏同步性往往会促进种群的持久性。在物理学中，对磁性材料或晶体结构的研究也提出了关于空间中状态相干性的类似问题。该项目将通过将相关生态模型映射到物理学中开发的平衡模型来解释大规模同步如何从局部耦合中产生。跨学科的研究小组有初步的数据建立了生态非平衡模型和物理模型的平衡特性之间的对应关系。研究将建立在这些初步结果的基础上，以确认相变在各种系统中的存在，从而为理解同步动力学提供统一的方法。主要的工具将是计算机模拟，辅以解析近似，提供对过渡的理解。这种结合将提供对生态系统中非特定模型的同步性的深刻理解，并产生物理学中感兴趣的新模型，从而使两个学科受益。这个新颖的跨学科项目将通过发展对不同空间尺度同步动力学的基本理解，为生态学和凝聚态物理学的不同领域贡献基础的新理论。了解农业生态系统中空间和时间同步行为的出现可能对植物和动物疾病的有效管理、害虫控制、农业战略以及最终对粮食安全产生巨大影响。跨越两个不同学科的理论项目具有解决粮食安全问题的潜力，为解决一个随着时间的推移而变得越来越重要的问题提供了新的方法，这是非常罕见的。研究人员计划用跨学科的方法培训学生，并将在国家数学和生物合成研究所和圣达菲研究所举办讲习班，以广泛传播所开发的方法。

This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the Population and Community Ecology Program in the Division of Environmental Biology in the Directorate for Biological Sciences and by the Emerging Frontiers Program in the Directorate for Biological Sciences, by the Condensed Matter and Materials Theory Program in the Division of Materials Research and Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Directorate for Mathematics and Physical Sciences, and by the Office of Integrative Activities. Spatial and temporal variability are common across many areas of study ranging from physics to ecology. In all areas, it is important to understand dynamics across space: under what conditions are dynamics synchronous across space and when is there a lack of spatial coherence? Ecologists have struggled to understand spatial synchrony for over a century, in part because lack of synchrony often promotes persistence of populations. Within physics, studies of magnetic materials or of crystal structures have posed similar questions about the coherence of states across space. This project will explain how broad-scale synchrony can arise from local couplings by mapping relevant ecological models to an equilibrium model developed in physics. The interdisciplinary team of researchers has preliminary data establishing a correspondence between ecological non-equilibrium models and the equilibrium properties of physical models. Research will build on these preliminary results to confirm the presence of phase transitions for a wide variety of systems, thus providing ways to unify approaches for understanding the dynamics of synchrony. The primary tools will be computer simulations that are complemented by analytic approximations that provide understanding of transitions. This combination will both provide a deep understanding of synchrony in ecological systems that is not model specific, and produce new models of interest within physics, thus benefitting both disciplines.This novel interdisciplinary project will contribute basic, new theory to the disparate fields of ecology and condensed matter physics by developing a basic understanding of the dynamics of synchrony at different spatial scales. Understanding of the emergence of spatially and temporally synchronous behavior in agroecological systems could have tremendous impact on effective management of plant and animal diseases, control of pests, agricultural strategies, and ultimately on food security. It is very rare that a theoretical project spanning two disparate disciplines has such potential to address questions of food security, providing novel ways to address a problem that will grow in importance with time. The researchers plan to train students in interdisciplinary approaches and will hold workshops both at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis and the Santa Fe Institute to provide broad dissemination of the approaches developed.