Doctoral Dissertation Research: Characterization of a modern East African ecosystem to inform reconstructions of hominin diet

饮食是人类进化研究中的一个重要因素，因为它与行为、形态和生态有关。这个博士论文项目旨在通过分析现代东非生态系统来增加我们对早期人类祖先饮食的理解。除了狒狒常吃和不吃的食物外，该学生将评估热带稀树草原和湿地植物的营养和机械特性，跨越季节和微栖息地变化的梯度。以前的工作已经揭示了早期人类广泛的栖息地和食物偏好，而这个项目对季节性和微栖息地的关注将为增加过去的研究提供重要的新数据。该项目将支持学生和研究助理在生态领域方法方面的培训，旨在接触STEM领域中代表性不足的群体的学生的公共科学推广活动，以及研究现场的保护工作。该项目将通过研究人类可能获得的食物的机械特性，解决目前缺乏生态学数据来重建上新世-更新世人类饮食的问题。研究人员将在肯尼亚安博塞利国家公园进行旱季和雨季的实地考察，该公园以其高微生境异质性和大黄狒狒（Papio cynocephalus）种群而闻名。他们将在不同的微生境（草地、湿地、灌丛地等）建立取样样带，并在每个样带（如适用）收集优势树种、forb、草本、草和莎草。还将在每个样带内收集狒狒常吃和不吃的食物；狒狒是早期人类的一个合适的生态模拟物，因为它们有广泛的饮食生态位和对热带草原栖息地的偏好。将便携式机械测试仪用于新鲜植物材料，测量每个采样物种的组成部分（根，茎，叶等）的硬度和韧性。机械测试完成后，剩余的植物样品将被干燥并分析纤维、木质素、脂肪和油、蛋白质和微量金属的含量。所得到的营养和力学特性数据结合了季节和微生境的变化，可以用来建立早期人类觅食行为的预测模型。

Diet is an important factor in studies of human evolution because it is linked to behavior, morphology, and ecology. This doctoral dissertation project seeks to increase our understanding of the diets of early human ancestors through analysis of modern East African ecosystems. The student co-PI will evaluate the nutritional and mechanical properties of dominant savanna and wetland plants, in addition to commonly eaten and avoided baboon foods, across gradients of seasonal and microhabitat variability. Previous work has shed light on broad habitat and food preferences of early humans, and this project's focus on seasonality and microhabitat will provide important new data to augment past studies. This project will support student and research assistant training in ecological field methods, public science outreach activities designed to reach students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields, and conservation efforts at the research site. This project will address the lack of ecological data currently available for reconstructing diet in Plio-Pleistocene hominins by studying the mechanical properties of foods that may have been accessible to hominins. The researchers will conduct fieldwork across both the wet and dry seasons in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, a site known for its high microhabitat heterogeneity and large yellow baboon (Papio cynocephalus) populations. They will establish sampling transects in different microhabitats (grassland, wetland, scrubland, etc.) and collect dominant tree, forb, herb, grass, and sedge species in each transect (where applicable). Commonly eaten and avoided baboon foods will also be collected within each transect; baboons are a suitable ecological analogue for early humans because of their wide dietary niche and preference for savanna habitats. A portable mechanical tester will be used on fresh plant material to measure the hardness and toughness of the component parts (root, stem, leaf, etc.) of each sampled species. Once mechanical testing is complete, remaining plant samples will be dried and analyzed for fiber, lignin, fat and oil, protein, and trace metal content. The resulting nutritional and mechanical properties data incorporating both seasonal and microhabitat variability can be used to build predictive models of early human foraging behavior.