Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Nutritional Goals and Nutrient Prioritization across Variant Habitats in an Omnivorous Primate

环境背景是包括人类在内的动物饮食和饮食行为形成的一个核心方面，但栖息地变化与饮食中特定宏量营养素优先级之间的联系尚不清楚。缺乏关于栖息地如何影响宏量营养素管理行为的知识是现代饮食行为的特征，从进化的角度来看也是如此。在人类中，已经发现了蛋白质优先化的证据，即个体允许其他营养物质在固定的蛋白质水平附近波动。这种营养平衡模式被称为“蛋白质杠杆”，被认为是现代肥胖流行的一个原因，即人类会过度消耗能量来满足蛋白质需求。人类饮食行为的这一方面被认为是在稀树草原环境下的人类进化史中产生的，在这种环境下，可用的食物中蛋白质的比例很高，但脂肪和碳水化合物的含量有限。为了充分了解栖息地和季节性如何影响人类祖先在现代背景下持续存在的饮食优先顺序，本论文项目将利用灵长类动物模型，野生狒狒，像人类一样，以杂食性饮食和生态和饮食灵活性而闻名。通过比较这些灵长类动物在不同的栖息地和不同的常量营养素组成的可用食物的季节性波动，该研究将评估饮食如何受到环境背景的影响，包括栖息地如何在进化时间尺度上影响人类的饮食优先顺序。栖息地差异如何影响饮食和营养优先级的建模将基于对两种不同栖息地（乌干达的森林和肯尼亚的稀树草原环境）中雌性Papio anubis营养优先级的比较数据。这项研究将由纽约城市大学的女博士生Caley Johnson在Jessica Rothman博士的指导下进行。个人营养摄入数据将在食物可得性和丰度的季节性变化背景下进行评估，并将采用营养几何框架（GF）。GF是一种多维分析方法，可应用于营养生态学研究，包括确定营养物质的膳食优先级和不同物种间以及不同栖息地物种内的常量营养素平衡。实地调查将包括在乌干达Kibale国家公园收集12个月的数据，在肯尼亚Laikipia收集6个月的数据，包括旱季和雨季。除了阐明影响杂食性灵长类动物（如人类）饮食和营养优先次序的环境条件外，该项目还将扩大其在各个方向的影响。这些数据与在同一地区收集的稳定同位素数据相结合，将发现额外的价值；这将提高东非古人类化石和木瓜蛋白（早期人类和狒狒祖先）的稳定同位素古饮食分析的解释。加强对森林环境中狒狒生态的理解将产生独特的营养，生态和灵长类行为的综合，这将促进对行为和生态的种内变化的见解。由于这项研究的范围是国际性的，因此将促进美国大学和学生与非洲大学和机构的科学合作，促进教育和提高研究能力。

Environmental context is a core aspect in the shaping of diet and dietary behavior in animals, including humans, but the linkages between habitat variation and prioritization of particular macronutrients in diet is not well understood. This lack of knowledge regarding how habitat shapes macronutrient management behavior is characteristic of modern dietary behavior, as well as from an evolutionary perspective. In humans, evidence has been found for protein prioritization, whereby individuals allow fluctuation of other nutrients around a fixed protein level. Termed 'protein leverage,' this pattern of nutrient balancing has been implicated as a causal factor in the modern obesity epidemic, whereby humans will over-consume energy to meet their protein needs. This aspect of human dietary behavior is hypothesized to have arisen from human evolutionary history in the context of a savanna environment, one in which available foods are proportionally high in protein, but limited in fats and carbohydrates. In order to fully understand how habitat and seasonality may have influenced diet priorities in human ancestry which persist in the modern context, this dissertation project will utilize a primate model, wild baboons, which, like humans, are known for their omnivorous diet and their ecological and dietary flexibility. By comparing these primates across varying habitats and seasonal fluctuations in available food items with variant macronutrient composition, the research will assess how diet may be shaped by environmental context, including how habitat may have shaped human dietary priorities over evolutionary timescales.The modeling of how differences in habitat shape diet and nutritional priorities will be based on comparative data on the nutritional priorities of female Papio anubis in two different habitats, a forest in Uganda and a savanna environment in Kenya. The research will be conducted by a female doctoral student, Caley Johnson, under the supervision of Dr. Jessica Rothman, City University of New York. Individual nutritional intake data will be assessed in the context of seasonal shifts in the availability and abundance of food, and will employ the Geometric Framework of Nutrition (GF). The GF is a multidimensional analytical approach which has application to research investigating nutritional ecology, including determination of dietary prioritization of nutrients and balancing of macronutrients across species and within species occupying variant habitats. The fieldwork will encompass 12 months of data collection in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and 6 months in Laikipia, Kenya, across wet and dry seasons.In addition to elucidating the environmental conditions that shape diet and nutrient priorities in omnivorous primates such as humans, this project also will broaden its impact in various directions. The data will find additional value added in pairing with stable isotope data collected for the same areas; this will improve interpretation of stable isotope paleodietary analysis of East African fossil hominins and papionins (early human and baboon ancestors). The enhancement of understanding of baboon ecology in forested environments will generate a unique synthesis of nutrition, ecology, and primate behavior that will promote insights into intraspecific variation in behavior and ecology. As the research is international in scope, there will be fostering of scientific collaborations of US universities and students with African universities and institutions, promoting education and enhancing research capacity.