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，对许多物种来说，这些群体占据了部分重叠的家园。这种非排他性提出了关于群体何时以及如何暂时分割景观的基本问题。本研究的中心假设是群体层面的社会支配等级制度解决了群体间的资源竞争，从而直接影响了社会群体间的资源分配，最终影响了群体间成员平均个体适合度的差异。本研究以东非安博塞利盆地草原狒狒（Papio cynocephalus）为研究对象，研究群体水平的优势对空间利用动态的影响。除了利用安博塞利狒狒研究项目提供的长期生态、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）工具收集新数据，以：(1)按照预先确定的同步时间表自动记录众多群体的位置；(2)划定研究系统内的资源和栖息地。这些方法将首次允许详细分析这一种群内多个群体的相互关联的运动，以及它们争夺的生态资源之间的时间和空间关系。因此，研究结果将为研究景观层面的问题提供必要的数据，例如群体层面的优势模式如何影响群体相互迁移的地点和时间，这些层次结构在群体获得有限资源时的调解作用，以及空间背景对资源选择和开发的影响。由于狒狒被认为是有价值的类人猿，研究结果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，通过说明动态空间使用和移动模式的交互式地图应用程序，展示研究结果和影响。

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.