Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Dynamic Habitat Partitioning among Savannah Baboon Social Groups - the Role of Group-level Social Dominance Hierarchies

大多数灵长类动物生活在相对稳定的社会群体中，对于许多物种来说，这些群体占据着部分重叠的家园。这种非排他性引发了关于群体何时以及如何暂时划分景观的根本问题。本研究的中心假设是，群体层面的社会优势等级制度起着解决群体间资源竞争的作用，从而直接影响资源在社会群体之间的分配，并最终影响群体间群体成员平均个体适应度的差异。这项研究的重点是在东非安博塞利盆地的稀树大草原(Papio Cynocephalus)种群中，研究群级优势对空间利用动态随时间的影响。除了利用通过安博塞利浣熊研究项目获得的长期生态、生活史和行为数据外，研究人员还将使用现代地理信息系统(GIS)工具收集新的数据，以(1)按照预先确定的同步时间表自动记录众多种群的位置，以及(2)在研究系统内描绘资源和栖息地。这些方法将首次能够详细分析这一群体内多个群体的相互关联的流动，以及它们所竞争的生态资源之间的时间和空间关系。因此，研究结果将为研究地貌层面的问题提供必要的数据，如群体一级的优势模式如何影响群体相互移动的地点和时间，这些层次结构在协调群体何时获得有限资源方面发挥什么作用，以及空间背景对资源选择和开发的影响。因为狒狒被认为是人类的有价值的类似物，所以这些发现将对现代灵长类动物和人类祖先的空间生态学具有重要意义。将开发一个专门的网站组件，通过交互式绘图应用程序展示研究结果和所涉问题，说明动态空间使用和移动模式。

Most primates live in relatively stable social groups, and for many species these groups occupy partially overlapping homeranges. This non-exclusivity raises fundamental questions about when and how groups temporally partition the landscape. The central hypothesis of this study is that group-level social dominance hierarchies function to resolve intergroup resource competition, thus proximately affecting the allocation of resources among social groups and ultimately affecting differences between groups in the average individual fitness of group members. Investigating the influence of group-level dominance on the dynamics of space use over time is the focus of this research on a well-characterized population of savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus) in the Amboseli basin of east Africa. In addition to utilizing long-term ecological, life history, and behavioral data available through the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, researchers will collect novel data using modern geographic information system (GIS) tools to (1) automatically record the locations of numerous groups on a pre-determined, synchronous schedule and (2) delineate resources and habitats within the study system. These approaches will, for the first time, permit detailed analyses of both the interrelated movements of multiple groups within this population and the temporal and spatial relationship among the ecological resources for which they compete. Results will thereby provide data essential to examining landscape-level questions such as how group-level dominance patterns affect where and when groups move in relation to one another, what role these hierarchies have in mediating when groups have access to limited resources, and the influence of spatial context on resource selection and exploitation. Because baboons are considered valuable analogs to hominins, findings will have significance relevant to the spatial ecology of both modern primates and human ancestors. A dedicated website component will be developed to present the research findings and implications through interactive mapping applications that illustrate dynamic space-use and movement patterns.