Throughout the Neotropics, temperature and precipitation change with elevation and these changes affect the assemblage of species at any particular elevation. We documented the diversity of litter‐inhabiting spiders, (Arachnida: Araneae) along a Costa Rican elevational gradient as it relates to covarying abiotic factors such as temperature and precipitation. The spiders we collected were principally unidentifiable juveniles, and so we used Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) derived from DNA barcodes as proxies for species‐level interim names. We contrasted these taxon‐based estimates with phylogenetic measures of alpha‐ and beta‐diversity derived from both the mitochondrial DNA barcode region and a multi‐gene phylogeny of spiders and found that neither the abundance nor the species richness of spiders was significantly correlated with elevation, temperature, or precipitation. However, we did find that spider assemblages in the upper elevation cloud forests were phylogenetically clustered, (and this pattern was unrelated to whether the phylogenetic patterns were derived mitochondrially or from a multi‐gene analysis). One standard explanation for such a pattern is that harsh abiotic conditions in higher elevation forests have selected for particular spider lineages; however, this remains to be tested fully. The diversity of leaf‐litter spider species we uncovered was high and further sampling of spider abundance and diversity across the ACG is likely to yield many new species.

中文翻译：

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哥斯达黎加瓜亚卡斯特阿雷亚自然保护区（ACG）海拔高度上的蜘蛛多样性

在整个新热带，温度和降水随着海拔的升高而变化，这些变化会影响任何特定海拔高度的物种的集合。我们记录了哥斯达黎加海拔梯度上生活在垃圾中的蜘蛛（蜘蛛科：蜘蛛科）的多样性，因为它与温度和降水等非生物因素有关。我们收集的蜘蛛主要是无法识别的幼虫，因此我们使用从DNA条形码获得的条形码索引号（BIN）作为物种级临时名称的代理。我们将这些基于分类单元的估计与线粒体DNA条形码区域和蜘蛛的多基因系统发育所衍生的α和β多样性的系统发育测度进行了对比，发现蜘蛛的丰度和物种丰富度均与海拔没有显着相关性，温度或降水。但是，我们确实发现，高海拔云雾森林中的蜘蛛组合在系统发育上是聚类的（并且这种模式与系统发育模式是否是线粒体的还是多基因分析的无关）。这种模式的一种标准解释是，高海拔森林中严酷的非生物条件已经为特定的蜘蛛谱系选择了。但是，这仍有待充分测试。我们发现的枯叶蜘蛛物种的多样性很高，整个ACG的蜘蛛丰度和多样性的进一步采样很可能会产生许多新物种。（这种模式与系统发育模式是线粒体还是多基因分析无关）。这种模式的一种标准解释是，高海拔森林中严酷的非生物条件已经为特定的蜘蛛谱系选择了。但是，这仍有待充分测试。我们发现的枯叶蜘蛛物种的多样性很高，整个ACG的蜘蛛丰度和多样性的进一步采样很可能会产生许多新物种。（这种模式与系统发育模式是线粒体还是多基因分析无关）。这种模式的一种标准解释是，高海拔森林中严酷的非生物条件已经为特定的蜘蛛谱系选择了。但是，这仍有待充分测试。我们发现的枯叶蜘蛛物种的多样性很高，整个ACG的蜘蛛丰度和多样性的进一步采样很可能会产生许多新物种。