Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social relationships, predation risks, and primate sleep

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。这篇博士论文研究了群居灵长类动物如何决定晚上在哪里睡觉，以及他们对睡觉地点的选择如何影响他们的睡眠质量。该项目考虑了环境的物理特征以及灵长类动物群体特征的差异化和多方面的社会关系如何影响这一重要决定。通过调查这种选择对睡眠质量的影响，该研究为了解早期人类祖先如何在夜间捕食中幸存下来并获得充足的睡眠提供了比较视角。该项目支持在现场STEM研究能力建设，以及跨学科的研究机会，本科生和研究生从STEM代表性不足的群体。计划通过科学手稿、公开讲座和科普博客的贡献，与学术界和公众分享这项研究的成果。像其他生活在大草原上的灵长类动物一样，狒狒在夜间会在树上和悬崖上寻求庇护，以减轻夜间捕食的风险。当狒狒在夜间避难所中选择一个睡觉的地方时，它们不仅面临着一个异质的物理环境，这可能会在睡眠点替代品的感知质量上产生不对称，而且还面临着一个可变的生态环境和动态的社会环境，这可能会进一步调节与每个睡眠点相关的偏好和可用性。尽管有大量的研究兴趣，但实际的限制阻止了对灵长类动物如何导航这一至关重要但复杂的决策环境的系统调查。该项目结合了灵长类动物学的传统野外方法和最新的技术进步，以克服实际限制，使研究人员能够（1）描述狒狒的睡眠地点偏好;（2）评估个体如何在动态社会环境中更新他们的睡眠地点选择;（3）确定获得首选睡眠地点是否转化为可测量的睡眠益处;以及（4）测试感知捕食风险如何影响睡眠点决策动态和睡眠质量。该项目使用野外灵长类动物学的方法来描述该群体的社会动态，3D激光扫描来评估睡眠点的指标，热成像和卷积神经网络来跟踪狒狒在整个晚上的决定，加速度计来评估睡眠质量，捕食者回放来操纵感知的捕食风险。通过使用橄榄狒狒检查这些目标，合作和跨学科的研究为讨论早期人类祖先如何在最脆弱的时候做出复杂的决定提供了信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This doctoral dissertation research investigates how group-living primates decide where to sleep at night, and how their choice of where to sleep influences their sleep quality. The project considers how physical features of the environment as well as the differentiated and multi-faceted social relationships that are characteristic of primate group mates impact this important decision. By investigating the consequences of this choice on sleep quality, the research provides a comparative perspective for understanding how early human ancestors survived night predation and obtained sufficient sleep while doing so. This project supports STEM research capacity building at the field site as well as interdisciplinary research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students from groups underrepresented in STEM. There are plans to share products of this research with academic and public audiences through scientific manuscripts, public lectures, and popular-science blog contributions. Like other savannah-dwelling primates, baboons seek refuge at night in trees and on cliffs to mitigate the risk of nocturnal predation. When choosing a spot in which to sleep within the nighttime refuge, baboons face not only a heterogeneous physical environment that could create asymmetries in the perceived quality of sleep spot alternatives, but also a variable ecological context and dynamic social environment that could further modulate the preferences and availability associated with each sleep spot. Despite substantial research interest, practical limitations have prevented a systematic investigation of how primates navigate this critically important, yet complex decision-making landscape. This project combines traditional field methods in primatology with the latest technological advances to overcome practical limitations, allowing investigators to (1) characterize baboons’ sleep spot preferences; (2) assess how individuals update their sleep spot choices in a dynamic social environment; (3) determine whether acquiring a preferred sleep spot translates to a measurable benefit for sleep; and (4) test how the perceived risk of predation affects sleep spot decision-making dynamics and sleep quality. The project uses methods in field primatology to describe the group's social dynamics, 3D laser scanning to assess metrics of sleep spots, thermal imagery and convolutional neural networks to track baboons' decisions throughout the night, accelerometry to evaluate sleep quality, and predator playbacks to manipulate the perceived risk of predation. By examining these aims using olive baboons, the collaborative and interdisciplinary research informs discussions of how early human ancestors may have made complex decisions when they were most vulnerable.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.