The effects of food competition on energetics and population dynamics

食物是生存和繁殖所必需的。在食物有限的环境中，个体之间的竞争导致能源短缺，这不仅是因为缺乏食物，还因为与食物竞争相关的压力。以前的灵长类研究主要关注个体间食物竞争的影响，而这项研究的问题是，群体间的竞争是否会对生理健康指标产生类似的影响。该项目使用社会生态框架来确定当地环境的哪些特征使某些群体更容易受到食物竞争的影响。该项目包括通过实验室工作、数据分析以及在会议报告和期刊文章中传播结果，对生物人类学中代表性不足群体的学生进行广泛的培训和指导。它还包括开发实验室方法的教学视频，用于在实验室课堂上帮助学生。为了了解群体内食物竞争和群体间食物竞争的影响，该项目关注两个群体大小成反比的灵长类动物群体的行为和能量。这项研究(1)跟踪使用代谢激素的个体的日常能量状况，(2)解开个体、群体和物种之间竞争的能量影响，(3)通过卵巢激素衡量竞争对短期生殖状态的成本。这个项目可以作为未来研究社区范围内摄食竞争的模型--特别是在长寿、饮食灵活的物种中--并开始考虑种群之间和物种之间的动态如何影响物种内的竞争机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Food is necessary to survive and reproduce. In food-limited environments, competition among individuals leads to energy shortfalls, not just via lack of food, but also due to stress associated with feeding competition. Whereas previous primate research has focused on the effects of food competition among individuals, this research asks whether competition between groups exerts similar effects on indicators of physiological well-being. The project uses a socio-ecological framework to pinpoint what features of local environments make some groups more versus less vulnerable to the effects of food competition. The project involves extensive training and mentoring of students from groups under-represented in biological anthropology through lab work, data analysis, and dissemination of results in conference presentations and journal articles. It also involves the development of instructional videos on laboratory methods that will be used to assist students in lab classes.To understand the effects of within- versus between-group food competition, this project focuses on the behavior and energetics of two primate populations whose group sizes are inversely correlated. The research (1) tracks the day-to-day energetic conditions of individuals using metabolic hormones, (2) disentangles the energetic effects of competition among individuals, groups, and species, and (3) evaluates the costs of competition on short-term reproductive status, measured through ovarian hormones. This project can serve as a model for future studies of community-wide feeding competition – particularly among long-lived, dietarily flexible species – and initiate consideration of how between-group and between-species dynamics affect competitive regimes within species.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.