Behavioral, morphological, and ecological trait evolution in two clades of New World Sparrows (Aimophila and Peucaea, Passerellidae)

Carla Cicero; Nicholas A Mason; Lauryn Benedict; James D Rising

doi:10.7717/peerj.9249

Behavioral, morphological, and ecological trait evolution in two clades of New World Sparrows (Aimophila and Peucaea, Passerellidae)

PeerJ. 2020 Jun 19:8:e9249. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9249. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Carla Cicero¹, Nicholas A Mason^{1

2}, Lauryn Benedict³, James D Rising⁴

Affiliations

¹ Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States of America.
² Current affiliation: Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America.
³ School of Biological Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, United States of America.
⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

The New World sparrows (Passerellidae) are a large, diverse group of songbirds that vary in morphology, behavior, and ecology. Thus, they are excellent for studying trait evolution in a phylogenetic framework. We examined lability versus conservatism in morphological and behavioral traits in two related clades of sparrows (Aimophila, Peucaea), and assessed whether habitat has played an important role in trait evolution. We first inferred a multi-locus phylogeny which we used to reconstruct ancestral states, and then quantified phylogenetic signal among morphological and behavioral traits in these clades and in New World sparrows more broadly. Behavioral traits have a stronger phylogenetic signal than morphological traits. Specifically, vocal duets and song structure are the most highly conserved traits, and nesting behavior appears to be maintained within clades. Furthermore, we found a strong correlation between open habitat and unpatterned plumage, complex song, and ground nesting. However, even within lineages that share the same habitat type, species vary in nesting, plumage pattern, song complexity, and duetting. Our findings highlight trade-offs between behavior, morphology, and ecology in sparrow diversification.

Keywords: Aimophila; Avian duets; Behavior; Habitat; Melozone; Passerellidae; Peucaea; Phenotype; Phylogenetic signal; Trait evolution.

Grants and funding

The molecular lab work for this study was supported by the Avian Genetics Fund of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. Financial support for this publication was provided by the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) sponsored by the University of California Berkeley Library. The authors received no outside funding for this work. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.