Aim Spatial synchrony in plankton is imperfectly understood yet may have far‐reaching implications, for example for carbon export to the deep ocean. Several techniques have been used to describe patterns of spatial synchrony, from correlation coefficients to spectral methods. Some studies have used temporally extensive data sets to identify causes of synchrony. This study instead uses the exceptional spatial extent provided by...

Aim Previous work demonstrated a pronounced geography of synchrony for marine phytoplankton and used that geography to infer statistical environmental determinants of synchrony. Here, we determine whether terrestrial vegetation (measured by the enhanced vegetation index, EVI) also shows a geography of synchrony and we infer determinants of EVI synchrony. As vegetation is the basis of the terrestrial food web, changes in spatio...

During the 1980s, the North Sea plankton community underwent a well‐documented ecosystem regime shift, including both spatial changes (northward species range shifts) and temporal changes (increases in the total abundances of warmer water species). This regime shift has been attributed to climate change. Plankton provide a link between climate and higher trophic‐level organisms, which can forage on large spatial and temporal s...