Doctoral Dissertation Research: Examining the role of competition in primate dietary morphology

本博士论文项目研究了竞争如何影响灵长类动物的适应过程，测试了灵长类动物通过集中进食未充分利用的资源来应对食物资源竞争的中心假设。该项目通过测量牙齿形状来分析特征，并使用稳定同位素分析来检查饮食和冠层的使用，通过比较生活在一起的种群和分开生活的种群来研究灵长类动物对之间的差异。这项研究可以为保护管理计划提供新的信息，通过记录栖息地丧失引起的竞争加剧的影响，防止灵长类动物进一步灭绝。本项目收集的数据为本科生创造了实习机会，并提供了进行原创性研究的协议和程序方面的培训。这项研究的结果将被纳入基于灵长类动物饮食和保护主题的学习模块。这些学习模块将被当地的一个非营利性教育节目组织使用，该组织为中小学生提供科学活动。该项目提出了两个研究问题：1)亲缘关系密切的灵长类物种在一起生活时是否会将饮食集中在几种关键食物上，而同一物种在分开生活时是否会？2)亲缘关系密切的灵长类物种在共同生活时，是否表现出比单独生活时更少关注关键资源的形态特征和同位素特征？这些问题将使用生态测量测量来量化牙齿形状和稳定同位素数据来代表饮食和冠层的使用。通过结合齿形和同位素特征分析方法，本项目将为如何重建食性行为和资源竞争提供新的视角。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation project examines how competition affects primate adaptive processes, testing the central hypothesis that primates respond to competition over food resources by focusing feeding on underutilized resources. Using measures of tooth shape to analyze traits, and stable isotope analysis to examine diet and canopy use, this project looks at differences between primate pairs by comparing populations that live together to populations that live separately. The study can provide new information relevant to conservation management programs to prevent further primate extinction by documenting the impacts of increased competition due to habitat loss. Data collected for this project create undergraduate internship opportunities and provide training in the protocols and procedures of conducting original research. Results from this research will be incorporated into learning modules based on the themes of primate diet and conservation. These learning modules will be utilized by a local non-profit educational programming group that provides scientific activities to elementary and middle school students. This project asks two research questions: 1) do closely-related primate species focus their diet on a few key food items when they live together compared to the same species when they occur separately? and 2) do closely-related primate species display morphological traits and isotopic signatures that reflect focus on fewer key resources when they live together compared to the same species when they occur separately? These questions will be tested using ecometric measures to quantify tooth shape and stable isotope data to represent diet and canopy use. By combining methods to analyze tooth shape and isotopic signatures related to habitual canopy level occupation, this project will provide new perspectives on how to reconstruct dietary behaviors and resource competition.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.