A conceptual framework for the temporal dynamics of spatial environmental heterogeneity–biodiversity relationships

Environmental heterogeneity is an important spatial characteristic, the loss of which is thought to reduce biodiversity by decreasing the availability of niche space. The temporal dimension of the environmental heterogeneity-biodiversity relationship remains largely unexplored despite the increasing focus on anthropogenic change in ecology. To address this gap, we review peer-reviewed published studies to propose a first typology for the temporal dynamics associated with the terrestrial environmental heterogeneity-biodiversity relationship. We found a paucity of studies that address temporality, after filtering, just 23 papers met our search criteria. We propose three key temporal domains that require further research: short-term dynamics, long-term trajectories, and interactions with the spatial grain of observation which are essential for understanding biodiversity responses to environmental change.