Temporal heterogeneity increases with spatial heterogeneity in ecological communities

Heterogeneity is increasingly recognized as a foundational characteristic of ecological
systems. Indeed, spatial heterogeneity is commonly used in alternative state theory as an
early indicator of regime shifts. To evaluate if spatial heterogeneity of communities is a
predictor of temporal heterogeneity, we used mixed effects models to synthesize 68 community
datasets spanning freshwater and terrestrial systems where measures of species abundance
were replicated over space and time. Overall, we found a significant positive relationship
between spatial and temporal heterogeneity across all ecosystems. In addition, lifespan and
successional stage were related to temporal heterogeneity. Therefore we found evidence that
spatial heterogeneity is a potential tool to predict temporal heterogeneity in ecological
communities. This data package consists of six files. First we used a (1) R script to derive
community dynamic metrics from source files to calculate (2) spatial and temporal
heterogeneity over time as well as other measures of the community. We used this derived
dataset to run analyses (3) with a R script to study the relationship between spatial and
temporal heterogeneity communities. These analyses resulted in three figures, (4) the
overall relationship between spatial and temporal heterogeneity, (5) output of mixed models
investigating how experimental and biological factors affect this relationship, and (6)
figures exploring how lifespan of the study organism affects the relationship between
spatial and temporal datasets.