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.

尽管化石记录提供了与栖息地和饮食变化相关的身体适应的证据，但仍不清楚食物供应的变化如何影响人类社会行为的进化。 ，对野生非人类灵长类动物的非侵入性研究可以为重建早期人类祖先的潜在行为提供比较数据，该博士论文研究项目利用了长期研究的、经历了重大栖息地变化的野生非人类灵长类动物种群的数据。两个塑造社会行为的潜在机制：景观中食物的分布及其质量，该项目通过增进我们对灵长类动物社会性以及主要气候变化如何影响人类社会进化的理解来促进科学进步。濒危灵长类动物的长期栖息地变化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，并通过强调受保护栖息地恢复的外展活动加强社区关系并促进环境管理。风景。黑猩猩的社会性和栖息地的质量存在很大差异，研究人员怀疑食物供应的差异导致了黑猩猩的社会差异；然而，研究地点在生态和方法方面也存在差异，这在很大程度上阻碍了直接比较种群的研究。一组黑猩猩的长期数据为探索栖息地时空变化对行为的影响提供了一个独特的机会，从 20 世纪 70 年代开始的系统数据收集已经捕获了人类活动导致栖息地恢复的 6 年来的详细行为观察。研究人员收集了原始的焦点跟踪数据和非侵入性尿液样本，对 66 年的现有行为观察和 20 年的物候数据进行了补充，他们还使用历史喂养数据和遥感景观指标来构建。研究人员对 1980 年至 2020 年植物食物物种分布的空间模型进行了分析，以建立食物供应、饮食构成、个体能量状态和行为之间的联系。以及特定个体的活动范围质量对其进行高强度社会行为的能力的影响总体而言，这项研究扩展了对人类社会进化、黑猩猩种内行为差异的驱动因素以及栖息地恢复的行为后果的理解。濒临灭绝的灵长类动物。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。