Supplementary Material

Land use changes are a global concern influencing biodiversity and species distribution. Habitat modification along with the elevational shifts exert significant influence on the diversity and distribution of species within a community. However, the concurrent influences of both remains undocumented in arthropods in the Indian Himalayan Region. The current study uses spiders as a model taxon to address this critical knowledge gap by assessing parallel influences of elevation and land-use changes on spider functional diversity, along a gradient of 1500-4500m at 500m elevational intervals in a North-Western Himalayan landscape. We assessed trait variabilities across three broad land-use categories: forests, agricultural lands, and human-dominated regions, at 500m elevational intervals. We found non-general variations with significant discrepancies in managed habitats compared to forests and overall trends. We also found higher abundance of synanthropic species inhabiting human-dominated regions. The study also documented directional trait shifts associated with elevational changes, highlighting the transition between 3000-3500m as crucial functional and community limits for Himalayan spider communities. Overall, the research offers novel insights into the functional variabilities of spider communities under simultaneous natural and anthropogenic influences, a facet hitherto undocumented from the Himalaya. Our findings also raises concerns about the ecological consequences of habitat homogenization driven by large-scale agro-production strategies in climate-vulnerable Himalayan regions, shifting biodiversity patterns towards new functional regimes.