Summary: Third, I evaluated underlying patterns in the abundance of individual species along the time-series, in order to understand how different population level patterns combined to generate observed STRs. Species demonstrated non-random aggregation of individuals through time. The majority of species demonstrated significant temporal autocorrelation in abundance. A statistical model incorporating aggregation performed better than a random placement model in describing turnover patterns. Randomizations suggest that including intraspecific temporal autocorrelation as well as aggregation improves the estimation of temporal turnover patterns. Finally, I present a review and synthesis of all work conducted on the STR, and the related species-time-area relationship, to date.