The geography of spatial synchrony

Spatial synchrony, defined as correlated temporal fluctuations among populations, is a fundamental feature of population dynamics, but many aspects of synchrony remain poorly understood. Few studies have examined detailed geographical patterns of synchrony; instead most focus on how synchrony declines with increasing linear distance between locations, making the simplifying assumption that distance decay is isotropic. By synthesising and extending prior work, we show how geography of synchrony, a term which we use to refer to detailed spatial variation in patterns of synchrony, can be leveraged to understand ecological processes including identification of drivers of synchrony, a long-standing challenge. We focus on three main objectives: (1) showing conceptually and theoretically four mechanisms that can generate geographies of synchrony; (2) documenting complex and pronounced geographies of synchrony in two important study systems; and (3) demonstrating a variety of methods capable of...

空间同步性（Spatial synchrony）被定义为不同种群间的时间波动相关性，是种群动态的核心特征之一，但目前学界对同步性的诸多维度仍缺乏充分认知。鲜有研究针对同步性的精细化地理格局展开系统探究，绝大多数研究仅聚焦于同步性如何随研究位点间直线距离的增加而衰减，且均做出了距离衰减效应具有各向同性的简化假设。本研究通过整合并拓展既往研究成果，阐明了同步性地理格局（geography of synchrony，本文用于指代同步性模式的精细化空间变异）这一概念如何被用于解析生态过程——其中包括识别同步性的驱动因子这一长期存在的研究挑战。本研究设定了三项核心研究目标：(1) 从概念与理论层面阐释四类可产生同步性地理格局的作用机制；(2) 在两个重要的研究系统中，记录同步性地理格局的复杂且显著的空间分布特征；(3) 展示一系列可用于……的方法