Attractor reconstruction using embedding techniques is a widely used tool when analysing data from real systems. It allows reconstruction of the system dynamics from only one observable and is thus extremely powerful. We show here that this reconstruction is also possible from spatially coupled systems. We use a common host–parasitoid model as an example as ecological systems are virtually always spatially extended. Additionally, data from ecological systems has often only one observable, e.g. population density, from a potentially much higher-dimensional system. Singular value decomposition is used to show the existence of a functional relationship mapping the time delayed coordinates of one variable to the full spatially coupled system. We investigate the effects of noise and indicate two important spatial scales. Finally, we illustrate that a reconstruction can be obtained from a system that is only partially sampled.