Explain how abiotic factors may have allowed the development of high biodiversity in tropical rainforests

Tropical rainforests are located around the equator, where there are high temperatures and light levels which increase the rate of plant growth, in turn increasing competition and specialisation. There is a high presence of water which further increases the rate of both plant and animal growth, it also produces a perfect microclimate in the soil for micro-organisms to thrive. Rainforests have little seasonal changes which allow for more specialist species to survive with fewer abiotic threats to their fitness. There has been no large-scale climactic changes in rainforests such as ice ages, leading to a long evolutionary time scale for populations to diverge from a common ancestor. These combined factors have led to highly stable and biodiverse ecosystems within tropical rainforests.