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When can dispersal synchronize populations?

Student-Run Research Seminar

Speaker: Eli Goldwyn, UC Davis
Location: 2112 MSB
Start time: Wed, May 14 2008, 12:10PM

While spatial synchrony of oscillating populations has been observed in many ecological systems, the causes of this phenomenon are still not well understood. The most common explanations have been the Moran effect (synchronous external stochastic influences) and the effect of dispersal among populations. Since ecological systems are typically subject to large spatially varying perturbations which destroy synchrony, a plausible mechanism explaining synchrony must produce rapid convergence to synchrony. Here we apply the theory of weakly coupled oscillators to determine if and when weak coupling can synchronize these populations.