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

该INSPIRE奖的部分资金来自生物科学局环境生物学司的人口和社区生态学计划和生物科学局的新兴前沿计划，由材料研究司的凝聚态物质和材料理论计划，以及数学和物理科学局的多学科活动办公室，以及综合活动办公室。时空变异性在从物理学到生态学的许多研究领域中都很常见。在所有领域，重要的是要了解空间的动态：在什么条件下空间的动态是同步的，什么时候缺乏空间连贯性？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类似的问题，即整个空间中状态的一致性。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局部耦合如何产生大范围的同步。跨学科的研究团队已经有了初步的数据，建立了生态非平衡模型和物理模型的平衡属性之间的对应关系。研究将建立在这些初步结果的基础上，以确认各种系统存在相变，从而提供方法来统一理解同步动力学的方法。主要的工具将是计算机模拟，并辅之以提供对过渡的理解的解析近似。这种结合将提供对生态系统中不特定于模型的同步的深入理解，并产生物理学中感兴趣的新模型，从而使这两个学科受益。这个新的跨学科项目将通过发展对不同空间尺度上的同步动力学的基本理解，为生态学和凝聚态物理的不同领域贡献基本的、新的理论。了解农业生态系统中空间和时间同步行为的出现，对于有效管理动植物疾病、控制害虫、农业战略以及最终对粮食安全具有巨大的影响。一个跨越两个不同学科的理论项目具有如此潜力来解决粮食安全问题，为解决这个随着时间推移将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研讨会，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.