Doctoral Dissertation Research: Wild primate responses to variation in feeding habitat quality

博士论文研究：野生灵长类动物对进食栖息地质量变化的反应

• 批准号: 2235603
• 负责人: Ian Gilby
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2235603&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Wild; primate

Shifts in habitat likely served as powerful drivers throughout human evolution. While the fossil record provides evidence for physical adaptations related to changing habitats and diets, it remains unclear how the evolution of human social behavior was shaped by changes in food availability. To address this gap, non-invasive research on wild nonhuman primates can provide comparative data for reconstructing the potential behaviors of early human ancestors. This doctoral dissertation research project leverages data from a long-studied, wild nonhuman primate population that has undergone significant habitat change. The research focuses on two potential mechanisms shaping social behavior: the distribution of food in a landscape and its quality. The project promotes the progress of science by advancing our understanding of primate sociality and how major climatic shifts may have shaped human social evolution. Additionally, understanding the consequences of long-term habitat change for an endangered primate can inform conservation research and activities. The project also promotes international research collaborations, provides scientific training to undergraduate students and community members, and strengthens community relationships and promotes environmental stewardship through outreach events that highlight habitat recovery in protected landscapes. Chimpanzees show wide variation in sociality and the quality of landscapes they inhabit. Researchers suspect that differences in food availability drive chimpanzee social variation; however, research sites also differ in terms of ecology and methods, which has largely prevented studies directly comparing populations. Long-term data on one population of chimpanzees provide a unique opportunity to explore the consequences of temporal and spatial habitat variation on behavior. Systematic data collection beginning in the 1970s has captured detailed behavioral observations across six decades of significant habitat recovery from anthropogenic disturbance. Supplementing 66 community-years of existing behavioral observations and 20 years of phenology data, the researchers collect original focal follow data and non-invasive urine samples for energetic biomarker analysis. They also use historic feeding data and remote-sensed landscape metrics to construct spatial models of plant food species distribution from 1980-2020. Together, these data are analyzed to establish linkages between food availability, diet composition, individual energetic state, and behavior. The researchers also identify how food distribution influences ranging and sociality, as well as the impact of a given individual’s range quality on their ability to engage in energetically demanding social behaviors. Overall, this research expands understanding of hominin social evolution, the drivers of intraspecific behavioral differences in chimpanzees, and the behavioral consequences of habitat recovery in an endangered primate.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.

栖息地的转变可能是整个人类进化的强大驱动因素。虽然化石记录为与不断变化的栖息地和饮食有关的身体适应提供了证据，但尚不清楚人类社会行为的演变是如何通过粮食可用性变化来影响的。为了解决这一差距，对野生非人类私人的非侵入性研究可以提供比较数据，以重建早期人类祖先的潜在行为。这项博士学位论文研究项目利用了长期研究的野生非人类灵长类动物人群的数据，这些数据已经了解了重大的栖息地变化。该研究的重点是塑造社会行为的两种潜在机制：景观中食物的分布及其质量。该项目通过促进我们对隐私的理解以及重大的杂交转变可能塑造了人类的社会进化，从而促进了科学的进步。此外，了解长期栖息地变化对濒临灭绝的灵长类动物的后果可以为保护研究和活动提供信息。该项目还促进国际研究合作，为本科生和社区成员提供科学培训，并通过突出保护受保护景观中栖息地恢复的外展活动来加强社区关系并促进环境管理。黑猩猩的社会性和影响景观的质量都广泛。研究人员怀疑食品可用性的差异推动了黑猩猩的社会差异。但是，研究地点在生态学和方法方面也有所不同，这在很大程度上阻止了直接比较人群的研究。关于一个黑猩猩人群的长期数据为探索临时和空间栖息地变化对行为的后果提供了独特的机会。从1970年代开始的系统数据收集已捕获了六十年来从人为灾难中恢复六十年的栖息地恢复的详细行为观察。研究人员补充了现有的行为观察和20年的66年社区年，研究人员收集了原始焦点遵循数据和非侵入性尿液样本，以进行能量生物标志物分析。他们还使用历史悠久的喂养数据和遥感景观指标来构建1980 - 2020年的植物食品物种分布的空间模型。共同分析了这些数据，以在食品可用性，饮食组成，个体能量状态和行为之间建立联系。研究人员还确定了粮食分配如何影响范围和社会性，以及给定个人范围质量对他们从事基本要求社会行为的能力的影响。总体而言，这项研究扩大了对人类社会进化的理解，黑猩猩的种内行为差异的驱动因素以及濒临灭绝的灵长类动物中栖息地恢复的行为后果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来评估CRITERIA，通过评估来诚实地通过评估来进行评估。