Synchronization and stability in noisy population dynamics

We study the stability and synchronization of predator-prey populations subjected to noise. The system is described by patches of local populations coupled by migration and predation over a neighborhood. When a single patch is considered, random perturbations tend to destabilize the populations, leading to extinction. If the number of patches is small, stabilization in the presence of noise is maintained at the expense of synchronization. As the number of patches increases, both the stability and the synchrony among patches increase. However, a residual asynchrony, large compared with the noise amplitude, seems to persist even in the limit of an infinite number of patches. Therefore, the mechanism of stabilization by asynchrony recently proposed by Abta [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 098104 (2007)], combining noise, diffusion, and nonlinearities, seems to be more general than first proposed.