  Ecological systems, as is often noted, are complex. Equally notable is the
generalization that complex systems tend to be oscillatory, whether Huygens
simple patterns of pendulum entrainment or the twisted chaotic orbits of Lorenz
convection rolls. The analytics of oscillators may thus provide insight into
the structure of ecological systems. One of the most popular analytical tools
for such study is the Kuramoto model of coupled oscillators. Using a
well-studied system of pests and their enemies in an agroecosystem, we apply
this model as a stylized vision of the dynamics of that real system, to ask
whether its actual natural history is reflected in the dynamics of the
qualitatively instantiated Kuramoto model. Emerging from the model is a series
of synchrony groups generally corresponding to subnetworks of the natural
system, with an overlying chimeric structure, depending on the strength of the
inter-oscillator coupling. We conclude that the Kuramoto model presents a novel
window through which interesting questions about the structure of ecological
systems may emerge.
