Ising model behavior in coupled, one-dimensional ecological oscillators*

The emergent behavior of coupled populations provides important insight into the persistence and extinction-risk of metapopulations. We study a one-dimensional system of noisy, coupled, logistic maps and demonstrate that there is a correspondence between the behavior of the linear chain of coupled noisy logistic maps -- a dynamical system -- with that of the one-dimensional Ising model -- a thermodynamic system. This correspondence becomes exact at the zero temperature critical point.