We discuss potential links between our results and the past of the Atlantic Forest and the implications for this species conservation in a highly threatened habitat. Based on the available data on this species’ ecology, life history and sociality, we discuss how features from the western range could indicate specialisation in habitat use. Azure Jays in the western range tend to have: (1) larger body dimensions, (2) vocalisations with lower pitch and entropy, and (3) a greenish-blue plumage, than those in the eastern range. All available data independently supported the hypothesis of divergence between east and west.
Here we quantify Azure Jay geographic variation using three datasets, including vocalisations, morphology and plumage colour. The availability of Parana Pine (Araucaria angustifolia) seeds is essential for the survival of Azure Jays in the western range but not in the eastern range. This species’ distribution in the Atlantic Forest biome of south-eastern Brazil is divided into two ecologically distinct portions by the Serra do Mar mountain line. Although subtle, the variation in plumage colour of the Azure Jay (Cyanocorax caeruleus) has long been suggested to be of phylogeographic importance, but this hypothesis was not tested. Underlying biological processes can often shape phenotypic variation.
#Cloudy with chance of bucket by spacepig drivers
According to our time tree, cloud forest patches became isolated starting in the Pliocene and continuing into the Pleistocene, suggesting glacial cycles as the main drivers of speciation. The divergence observed among lineages is comparable to other species-level divergences in the genus, arguing for elevation of at least two, and as many as four, lineages within A. There was also a pattern of increasing ecological divergence through time. Multivariate analysis of phenotype, along with an objective method for detecting phenotypic clusters, suggest that at least four of the five lineages are diagnosable.
DNA suggests that these lineages have long histories of divergence. We assess divergence along three complementary axes (genetics, phenotype and ecological niche), finding evidence for differentiation among five lineages, currently described as subspecies, in isolated forest patches. We apply integrative taxonomy to an emblematic species of the Mesoamerican cloud forests, the unicolored jay (Aphelocoma unicolor).
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Taxonomy in this region has been challenging owing to a lack of consensus about how to test species limits. The highlands of Mesoamerica harbour some of the highest biodiversity in the world, especially in cloud forests, but the landscape drivers of this diversification are not well known.
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