Understanding factors that drive biodiversity distributions is central in ecology and critical to conservation. Elevational gradients are useful for studying the effects of climate on biodiversity but it can be difficult to disentangle climate effects from resource differences among habitat types. Here we compare elevational patterns and influences of environmental variables on ground-dwelling arthropods in open- and forested-habitats. We examine these comparisons in three arthropod functional groups (detritivores, predators, and herbivores) and two taxonomic groups (beetles and arachnids). We sampled twelve sites spanning 1,132 m elevation and four life zones, collecting 4,834 individual ground arthropods identified to 123 taxa. Elevation was a strong predicator for arthropod composition, however, patterns differed among functional and taxonomic groups and individual species between open- and forested-habitats. Beetles, arachnids, and predators decreased with elevation in open habitats but increased in forests showing a significant interaction between habitat type and elevation. Detritivores and herbivores showed no elevational patterns. We found 11 arthropod taxa with linear elevational patterns, seven that peaked in abundance at high elevations, and four taxa at low elevations. We also found eight taxa with parabolic elevational patterns that peaked in abundance at mid-elevations. We found that vegetation composition and productivity had stronger explanatory power for arthropod composition in forested habitats, while ground cover was a stronger predictor in open habitats. Temperature and precipitation were important in both habitats. Our findings demonstrate that relationships between animal diversity and elevation can be mediated by habitat type, suggesting that physiological restraints and resource limitations work differently between habitat types.

中文翻译：

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栖息地类型影响地面节肢动物群落的海拔模式

了解驱动生物多样性分布的因素是生态学的核心，对保护至关重要。海拔梯度对于研究气候对生物多样性的影响很有用，但很难将气候影响与栖息地类型之间的资源差异区分开来。在这里，我们比较了海拔模式和环境变量对开放和森林栖息地地面节肢动物的影响。我们在三个节肢动物功能组（碎屑动物、捕食者和食草动物）和两个分类组（甲虫和蛛形纲动物）中检查这些比较。我们对跨越 1,132 m 海拔和四个生命区的 12 个地点进行了采样，收集了 4,834 个单独的地面节肢动物，确定为 123 个分类群。然而，海拔高度是节肢动物组成的一个强有力的预测指标，开放和森林栖息地之间的功能和分类群以及个体物种的模式不同。甲虫、蛛形纲动物和捕食者在开放栖息地随海拔升高而减少，但在森林中增加，表明栖息地类型和海拔之间存在显着的相互作用。碎屑动物和草食动物没有显示出海拔模式。我们发现了 11 个具有线性海拔模式的节肢动物类群，其中 7 个在高海拔地区数量最多，4 个在低海拔地区。我们还发现了八个具有抛物线高度模式的类群，这些类群在中海拔地区达到顶峰。我们发现植被组成和生产力对森林生境中节肢动物的组成具有更强的解释力，而地被植物在开放生境中是更强的预测因子。温度和降水在这两个栖息地都很重要。