Ecological processes operating across the spatial scale can be equivalently found operating across the temporal scale. Such processes may affect community structure and species richness relationships in ways that can be analysed using the fossil record. The best studied involve the combination of the Species-Area-Relationship and the Species-Time-Relationship into a single space-time equivalence of species richness. This equivalence has been recorded in modern and fossil systems, providing insights into underlying ecological processes controlling species turnover through space and time. The analysis of space-time equivalence has received less attention for community structure, and we outline a framework wherein this could be examined. The inclusion of fossil data to investigations into space-time equivalence are important for revealing emergent properties of ecosystems that are not possible using only modern ecological data. They reveal complexities in the nature of the equivalence across distinct geographical and temporal thresholds and are impacted by environmental heterogeneity. In particular, the examination of space-time equivalence for Quaternary systems highlights the uniqueness of the Holocene with respect to the Pleistocene. Understanding how and why species are found together across large spatial and temporal scales can provide information important for conservation efforts; however, the few cases of space-time equivalence reported using fossil records indicates that this remains a poorly studied area in palaeoecology.

可以等效地发现跨空间尺度运行的生态过程。这样的过程可能以可以使用化石记录进行分析的方式影响社区结构和物种丰富度关系。研究得最好的方法是将物种-面积-关系和物种-时间-关系结合到单个物种丰富度的时空等效中。这种等效性已在现代和化石系统中记录下来，提供了对通过空间和时间控制物种更新的潜在生态过程的深刻见解。时空对等分析对社区结构的关注较少，我们概述了可以对其进行研究的框架。将化石数据包括在时空等效性调查中对于揭示仅使用现代生态数据不可能实现的生态系统的新兴特性非常重要。它们揭示了跨越不同地理和时间阈值的等价性质的复杂性，并受到环境异质性的影响。特别是，对第四纪系统时空等效性的研究突出了全新世相对于更新世的独特性。了解如何以及为什么在较大的时空尺度上共同发现物种，可以为保护工作提供重要信息；然而，使用化石记录报告的时空等效案例很少，这表明该地区在古生态学上仍然是研究不足的领域。