Relationship Among Demographic, Social and Genetic Structure

对灵长类动物在自然环境中的长期研究特别有价值。本项目研究自然种群的行为、生态（特别是生活史和种群规模）和遗传结构之间的相互依赖关系。实证研究的重点是几代单独鉴定的狒狒，Papio cynocephalus，在东非安博塞利地区对其整个生命周期进行监测。该项目将完善利用从粪便和血液中提取的DNA来确定个体遗传身份的发展。这将允许在对动物干扰最小的情况下进行基因取样。结合遗传同一性和已知母性的知识，将用于确定群体内部和群体之间的遗传相关性结构，并在可变环境中测试社会互动和亲属关系之间关系的理论。通过观察获得社会优势和从属关系、人口统计学和一般女性生殖状况的数据。利用遗传、行为和生殖数据，评估适合度成分的差异，并在受孕、妊娠、产后生存的几个阶段和交配时评估优势地位的后果。人口的遗传和社会分裂源于男性的分散和社会群体分裂成新的、独立的单位。分散和分裂的遗传、社会和生态（包括人口统计学）原因和后果是本研究中唯一适合分析的，并提供了与进化和碎片化种群保护相关的见解。因此，这项长期研究有望提供适用于各种情况下各种生物体的信息。

Nontechnical Abstract Long term studies of primates in their natural environment are especially valuable. This project studies the interdependencies among behavior, ecology (especially life history and population size) , and genetic structure of natural groups. The empirical research focuses on several generations of individually identified baboons, Papio cynocephalus, that are monitored throughout their lifetimes in the Amboseli region of East Africa. This project will perfect the development of determining the genetic identity of individuals using DNA that is derived from feces as well as from blood. This will permit genetic sampling with a minimum of disturbance to the animals. Combining knowledge of genetic identity and known maternity will be used to determine genetic relatedness structure within and between groups and to test theories of the relationship between social interactions and kinship in a variable environment. Data on social dominance and affiliative relationships, demography, and general female reproductive condition are obtained observationally. Differences in fitness components will be estimated and the consequences of dominance status will be evaluated at conception, gestation, several stages of post-natal survival, and mating using the genetic, behavioral, and reproductive data. Genetic and social partitioning of the population arises both from male dispersal and fissioning of social groups into new, independent units. Genetic, social, and ecological (including demographic) causes and consequences of dispersal and fissioning are uniquely amenable to analysis in this study and provide insights relevant both to evolution and to conservation of fragmented populations. Therefore, this long term research promises to provide information that will be applicable to a wide variety of organisms over a range of situations.