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

该INSPIRE奖部分由生物科学理事会环境生物学部的人口和社区生态计划以及生物科学理事会的新兴前沿计划资助，由材料研究部的凝聚态物质和材料理论计划以及数学和物理科学理事会的多学科活动办公室资助，和综合活动办公室。空间和时间变异性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，重要的是要了解跨空间的动态：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？生态学家们在过去的世纪里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续存在。在物理学中，对磁性材料或晶体结构的研究也提出了类似的问题，即空间中状态的相干性。这个项目将通过将相关的生态模型映射到物理学中发展的平衡模型来解释大规模的同步如何从局部耦合中产生。跨学科研究团队拥有初步数据，建立了生态非平衡模型与物理模型平衡性质之间的对应关系。研究将建立在这些初步结果，以确认相变的存在，为各种系统，从而提供统一的方法来理解同步的动态。主要的工具将是计算机模拟，辅之以分析近似，提供对过渡的理解。这种结合将提供对生态系统中同步性的深入理解，而不是特定的模型，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下同步性动力学的基本理解，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时空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。一个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，为解决一个将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。 研究人员计划对学生进行跨学科方法的培训，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.