Table 2.

Biotically and abiotically heterogeneous environments

	Biotically heterogeneous environments	Abiotically heterogeneous environments
Characteristics	Environments with numerous and/or intensive biotic interactions among competitors and hosts and their predators/parasites that are characteristic by dynamic coevolutionary reactions	Spatiotemporally abiotically very variable environments, i.e. patchy, diverse, changeable, unpredictable, and with unequally distributed resources
Examples	Tropical rainforests, low‐latitude coral reefs, ancient lakes, habitats with climax communities or generally with species‐rich complex ecosystems	Temporary, ephemeral or exposed habitats, dynamically changing freshwater environments, coastal habitats, biomes of high latitudes and/or altitudes

Main characteristics of biotically and abiotically heterogeneous environments in the optics of ecological theories of sexual reproduction and examples of habitats that are characteristic by strong biotic and abiotic heterogeneity.