There is an important spatial component to biodiversity. The structure of communities and ecosystems (e.g. the number of individuals and species present) can vary in different parts of the world. Similarly, the function of these communities and ecosystems (i.e. the interactions between the organisms present) can vary from one place to another. Different assemblages of ecosystems can characterize quite diverse landscapes, covering large areas. These spatial patterns of biodiversity are affected by climate, geology, and physiography
The structural, functional, and spatial aspects of biodiversity can vary over time; therefore there is a temporal component to the analysis of biodiversity. For example, there can be daily, seasonal, or annual changes in the species and number of organisms present in an ecosystem and how they interact. Some ecosystems change in size or structure over time (e.g. forest ecosystems may change in size and structure because of the effects of natural fires, wetlands gradually silt up and decrease in size). Biodiversity also changes over a longer-term, evolutionary, time-scale. Geological processes, changes in sea-level, and changes in climate cause significant, long-term changes to the structural and spatial characteristics of global biodiversity. The processes of natural selection and species evolution, which may often be associated with the geological processes, also result in changes to local and global flora and fauna.
Plate tectonics, in simple terms, can create mountains through convergent boundaries, create valleys through diverging boundaries, create valleys and flood plains through erosion. Sea-level changes will cause beach transgressions and regressions (beaches move inland, beaches move back out). These forms can change the nutrition available to animals and plants through different available sediments and soils, and by making one new habitat more habitable by a particular species. Finally, large landforms such as placement of mountain ranges can actually influence the large-scale climate.
