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In ecology, the ability of species to colonize new patches in search of better resource conditions is known to enhance the structural stability of population dynamics within ecosystems. However, such spatial dispersal also creates interconnections between patches, facilitating the synchrony of population dynamics across them. This synchronizing effect can increase the risk of local extinctions becoming global, potentially leading to the collapse of the entire ecosystem. In this context, we propose a mechanism to mitigate this risk, where unstable and transient dynamics at the patch level emerge as stable and persistent within the interconnected system. Specifically, unstable chaotic sets in the local population dynamics of individual patches behave as stable in the spatially distributed system, generating alternative desynchronized states. We analyze sets of state-dependent perturbations that either lead the spatial system toward undesired synchronized solutions or drive it toward desynchronization.