The geometry of nutritional niche separation among forest monkeys

研究当今的灵长类动物群落可以帮助我们了解它们是如何在进化过程中形成和维持的。充足的营养对生存和繁殖至关重要。这项研究的目的是了解猴子如何在共享同一雨林栖息地的同时满足它们的营养需求。杰西卡·罗斯曼博士和她的团队将研究四种猴子的饮食和营养，并绘制乌干达基巴莱国家公园树木的营养图。这项研究将测试假设，这将有助于理解他们不同的营养目标。例如，研究人员将测试一个假设，即不同种类的猴子以不同的方式平衡碳水化合物、脂肪、蛋白质、矿物质和毒素的摄入量，这使得它们能够在同一栖息地共同生存。这项研究将应用于灵长类动物进化和管理策略，影响灵长类动物保护的情况。STEM的一些研究生和本科少数民族学生将参加这项研究。他们将观察野生灵长类动物，学习生态领域的方法，并接受近红外光谱，营养建模和植物分析的培训。这项培训将为他们提供一个独特的国际经验，在热带雨林，主机的一些最高密度的灵长类动物在世界上。他们将与悉尼大学的营养模型师罗斯曼博士和乌干达野生动物管理局的保护经理一起工作。研究小组还将在布朗克斯的一所中学领导关于生态和保护的实践研讨会，否则学生们几乎没有机会接触自然。 这项研究采取了一种新的方法来理解促进灵长类动物群落功能生态位分离的机制，并在营养水平上考察了物种水平上的性状差异。 使用营养的几何框架，新的假设将被测试，是有关的分歧的同域猴的营养目标在Kibale，非洲雨林具有丰富的研究历史，拥有高密度的灵长类动物。通过这项研究，将全面考察同域灵长类物种的营养生态学，并揭示其营养平衡模式。研究人员将对单个猴子进行喂养观察，通过近红外反射光谱分析每个灵长类动物家域中每棵树的营养物质来评估食物可用性，并使用营养的几何框架来测试有关灵长类动物喂养生态学和营养目标的假设。通过这项研究，研究小组将制定关于灵长类动物行会之间和内部营养策略的一般原则，并通过阐明营养生态学在生态位分离中的意义，为灵长类动物生态学提供新的见解，这是一个以前研究不足和认识不足的灵长类动物群落生态学维度。

Studying present-day primate communities can help us to understand how they were shaped and maintained through evolutionary time. Adequate nutrition is critical for survival and reproduction. The goal of this research is to understand how monkeys meet their nutritional needs while sharing the same rainforest habitat. Dr. Jessica Rothman and her team will study the diet and nutrition of four monkey species and map the nutrients in trees in Kibale National Park, Uganda. The research will test hypotheses that will help understand their divergent nutritional goals. For example the researchers will test the hypothesis that different species of monkeys balance their intake of carbohydrates, fats, protein, minerals and toxins in different ways, which allows them to survive together in the same habitat. The research will be applied to scenarios of primate evolution and management strategies that affect primate conservation. Several graduate students and undergraduate minority students in STEM will participate in this research. They will observe wild primates, learn ecological field methods, and be trained in near infrared spectroscopy, nutritional modeling and plant analysis. This training will provide them with a unique international experience in a rainforest that hosts some of the highest densities of primates in the world. They will work alongside Dr. Rothman, a nutritional modeler from the University of Sydney, and conservation managers in the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The research team will also lead hands-on workshops on ecology and conservation at a Bronx middle school where students would otherwise have little opportunity to engage with nature. This research takes a new approach to understand mechanisms that promote functional niche separation in primate communities, and examines species-level differences in traits at the nutritional level. Using the geometric framework of nutrition, novel hypotheses will be tested that are related to the divergence of nutritional goals of sympatric monkeys in Kibale, an African rainforest with a rich history of research that hosts a high density of primates. Through this research, the nutritional ecology of sympatric primate species will be comprehensively examined, and their patterns of nutrient balancing will be revealed. The researchers will conduct feeding observations of individual monkeys, assess food availability by analyzing the nutrients in every tree in each primate's home range via near infrared reflectance spectroscopy, and use the geometric framework of nutrition to test hypotheses about primate feeding ecology and nutritional goals. Through this research the research team will formulate general principles about the nutritional strategies among and within primate guilds and provide new insights into primate ecology by shedding light on the significance of nutritional ecology in niche separation, a previously understudied and under-recognized dimension of primate community ecology.