Phase-locking and environmental fluctuations generate synchrony in a predator–prey community

David A. Vasseur () and Jeremy W. Fox
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David A. Vasseur: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Jeremy W. Fox: University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada

Nature, 2009, vol. 460, issue 7258, 1007-1010

Abstract: All together now Understanding what causes populations to fluctuate in synchrony is important, since synchronicity can have marked effects on extinction risk, food web stability and other factors influencing an ecosystem. Adjacent populations involved in similar predator–prey cycles often oscillate in synchrony, and David Vasseur and Jeremy Fox used theory and laboratory microcosms to show that, when predators are present, dispersal between prey populations is responsible for this phase-locking. Dispersal is the ability of individual organisms — Vasseur and Fox worked with snowshoe hares and Canadian lynx — to move from one isolated population to another. The model resulting from this work is robust to wide variations in parameters representing predator–prey and host–pathogen systems, suggesting that it may have general applicability.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08208

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