Final remarks
The frequently adopted biological concept has been criticized (Häuser,
1987) since many biological species and subspecies seems to be
unsuitable for practical or theoretical purposes. Thus, it is likely
that differentiation processes reported across several groups of
Neotropical birds (Harvey et al., 2017; McGuire et al., 2014) are being
overlooked. The Anthropocene, with its widely recognized adverse impacts
on biodiversity, driven by the current trends of wide and quick habitat
conversion (Gaston et al., 2003), and climatic change (Devictor et al.,
2008; Urban, 2015) worsens this scenario. In consequence, as indicated
by Mishler (2021), the adoption of less restrictive concepts, as the
phylogenetic one, will allow abandoning the biases and restrictions
imposed by the use of the species rank, improving the evolutive and
ecological research, and ultimately influencing positively areas of
public interest such as conservation.
The traditional use of single umbrella species for conservation purposes
received critics since a single species can hardly encapsulate the
environmental requirements and geographical distribution of the
remaining species to be protected (Fourcade et al., 2013). Consequently,
alternative multi-species approaches appeared, balancing the number of
taxa involved and their sensitivity to area/resources requirements
(including connectivity and natural processes) to establish realistic,
concrete and quantitative landscape design criteria (Lambeck, 1997;
Roberge & Angelstam, 2004). As top predators with variable size, and
differential environmental sensitivity and requirements, owls are good
candidates to be considered for a multi-taxa approach, for which our
study serves as a hurrying call to explore in-depth owl lineage
diversification in Brazil to improve biodiversity-related efforts.