Doctoral Dissertation Research: Costs of competing for food in wild primates

博士论文研究：野生灵长类动物争夺食物的成本

• 批准号: 2216699
• 负责人: Michelle Brown
• 金额: $ 3.11万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2216699&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Costs; competing

Competition between species exists nearly everywhere in nature, yet its intensity and consequences are difficult to measure. This study investigates how changes in the presence of competitors affects access to food resources, health, and reproduction in small primates. Results from this study will identify and measure the wide-ranging outcomes that small primates experience because of food-related competition. Results of this study help to explain the behavioral variation seen among primate species that live together eating similar diets, contributes to understanding population structure, and offers insight for conservation efforts for nonhuman primates. This study also provides significant training opportunities in field and laboratory methods for students from groups historically excluded from STEM internationally and the U.S. Most primates live in highly biodiverse communities and compete intensely with other species for access to food sources. Although between-species interactions are likely to have substantial effects on access to resources, primate studies have focused primarily on competitive interactions within a species. As a result, there is an urgent need to explore how between-species competition shapes reproduction, population dynamics, community structure, and even social interactions. This study examines how small-bodied red-tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) are affected by several larger primate species, by examining variation in competitor pressure, food availability, and red-tailed monkey physical condition at four field sites. The investigators will evaluate metabolic hormones from non-invasively collected urine and fecal samples to determine when individuals are in a state of energy gain, minor deficit, or profound tissue wasting. Reproductive effort will be assessed by tracking births and measuring reproductive hormones. These results will be used to determine whether the three larger, competing primate species have similar effects on red-tailed monkey energetics and reproduction, or if some competitors are unusually detrimental to a smaller-bodied species. This project is funded jointly by Biological Anthropology and Build and Broaden programs (SBE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

物种之间的竞争几乎存在于自然界中，但其强度和后果很难衡量。这项研究调查了竞争对手在场的变化如何影响小型灵长类动物的食物资源，健康和繁殖的机会。这项研究的结果将确定并衡量小灵长类动物由于食品相关竞争而经历的广泛结果。这项研究的结果有助于解释生活中饮食相似的灵长类动物中看到的行为差异，有助于理解种群结构，并为非人类灵长类动物的保护工作提供了见识。这项研究还为来自国际茎和美国历史上排除的群体的学生提供了重要的培训机会，大多数灵长类动物居住在高度生物多样性社区中，并与其他物种竞争以获取食物来源。尽管物种之间的相互作用可能会对获得资源的获取产生重大影响，但灵长类动物研究主要集中在一个物种内的竞争相互作用上。结果，迫切需要探索种之间的竞争如何塑造繁殖，人口动态，社区结构甚至社会互动。这项研究研究了小型的红尾猴（Cercopithecus ascanius）如何受到几种较大的灵长类动物的影响，通过检查竞争对手压力的变化，食物可用性和四个野外地点的红尾猴子物理状况。研究人员将评估非侵入性收集的尿液和粪便样品的代谢激素，以确定个体何时处于能量增益，少量赤字或深刻的组织浪费状态。生殖工作将通过跟踪出生和测量生殖激素来评估。这些结果将用于确定三个较大的，竞争的灵长类动物是否对红尾猴子能量和繁殖有相似的影响，或者某些竞争者是否对较小的物种有害。该项目由生物人类学，建立和扩展计划共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来支持的。