MINI REVIEW article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Biogeography and Macroecology
A Conceptual Framework for the Temporal Dynamics of Spatial Environmental Heterogeneity–Biodiversity Relationships
Provisionally accepted
- Universiteit Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands
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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.
Keywords: Biodiversity, environmental heterogeneity, long-term trajectories, Sampling frequency, Short-term dynamics, temporal dynamics, Terrestrial Ecosystems
Received: 24 Oct 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Gent, Bodegom and Si. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Joseph Gent
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