The focus of this talk is to provide a basic but informative answer to the ecological question: How do habitat disturbances and fragmentation affect species persistence and diversity? In order to answer this question, I will develop and analyze a deterministic metapopulation model that takes into account a time-dependent patchy environment. The variability of the patchy-environment could be thought to be due to environmental changes. I will demonstrate, accordingly to the model, the effects of spatial variations on persistence and coexistence of two competing species. Also, I will compare the analytical results of the deterministic model with simulations of a stochastic version of the model.