The geometry of nutritional niche separation among forest monkeys

研究当今的灵长类群落可以帮助我们理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。这项研究的目标是了解猴子如何在共享相同的热带雨林栖息地的情况下满足自己的营养需求。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地图。这项研究将检验有助于理解他们不同营养目标的假设。例如，研究人员将检验这一假设，即不同物种的猴子以不同的方式平衡其碳水化合物、脂肪、蛋白质、矿物质和毒素的摄入量，从而使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进化的情景和影响灵长类保护的管理策略。STEM的几名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，学习生态野外方法，并接受近红外光谱、营养模型和植物分析方面的培训。这项培训将为它们提供独特的雨林体验，雨林是世界上一些灵长类动物密度最高的地方。他们将与来自悉尼大学的营养模型设计师罗斯曼博士以及乌干达野生动物管理局的保护经理们一起工作。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动手研讨会，否则学生们几乎没有机会接触自然。这项研究采用了一种新的方法来理解促进灵长类群落功能生态位分离的机制，并在营养水平上检查了物种水平上的特征差异。利用营养学的几何框架，将检验与Kibale共域猴子营养目标差异有关的新假设。Kibale是一片非洲热带雨林，有着丰富的研究历史，居住着高密度的灵长类动物。通过这项研究，将全面考察共域灵长类物种的营养生态，揭示它们的营养平衡规律。研究人员将对单个猴子进行摄食观察，通过近红外反射光谱分析每个灵长类动物家园范围内每棵树的营养物质来评估食物的可用性，并使用营养的几何框架来测试关于灵长类摄食生态和营养目标的假说。通过这项研究，研究小组将制定关于灵长类协会之间和内部营养策略的一般原则，并通过揭示营养生态学在生态位分离中的重要性提供对灵长类生态的新见解，生态位分离是以前研究不足和认识不足的灵长类群落生态学的一个维度。

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.