Doctoral Dissertation Research: Wild primate responses to variation in feeding habitat quality

栖息地的变化可能在整个人类进化过程中起到了强大的推动作用。虽然化石记录提供了与栖息地和饮食变化有关的身体适应的证据，但尚不清楚人类社会行为的进化是如何受到食物供应变化的影响的。为了弥补这一空白，对野生非人类灵长类动物的非侵入性研究可以为重建早期人类祖先的潜在行为提供比较数据。本博士论文研究项目利用了一个长期研究的野生非人灵长类动物种群的数据，这些种群经历了显著的栖息地变化。研究的重点是塑造社会行为的两种潜在机制：食物在景观中的分布及其质量。该项目促进了我们对灵长类动物社会性以及重大气候变化如何影响人类社会进化的理解，从而促进了科学的进步。此外，了解长期栖息地变化对濒危灵长类动物的影响可以为保护研究和活动提供信息。该项目还促进国际研究合作，为本科生和社区成员提供科学培训，加强社区关系，并通过强调受保护景观中栖息地恢复的外展活动促进环境管理。黑猩猩在社会性和它们所居住的环境质量方面表现出很大的差异。研究人员怀疑，食物供应的差异驱动了黑猩猩的社会变异；然而，研究地点在生态和方法方面也有所不同，这在很大程度上阻碍了直接比较种群的研究。对一个黑猩猩种群的长期数据提供了一个独特的机会来探索时空栖息地变化对行为的影响。从20世纪70年代开始的系统数据收集已经捕获了60年来从人为干扰中恢复的重要栖息地的详细行为观察。补充66个社区年的现有行为观察和20年的物候数据，研究人员收集了原始的焦点跟踪数据和非侵入性尿液样本，用于能量生物标志物分析。他们还利用历史摄食数据和遥感景观指标构建了1980-2020年植物食物物种分布的空间模型。综合分析这些数据，建立食物供应、饮食组成、个人能量状态和行为之间的联系。研究人员还确定了食物分配如何影响范围和社会性，以及特定个体的范围质量对他们参与精力旺盛的社会行为的能力的影响。总的来说，这项研究扩大了对人类社会进化的理解，黑猩猩种内行为差异的驱动因素，以及濒危灵长类动物栖息地恢复的行为后果。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。

Shifts in habitat likely served as powerful drivers throughout human evolution. While the fossil record provides evidence for physical adaptations related to changing habitats and diets, it remains unclear how the evolution of human social behavior was shaped by changes in food availability. To address this gap, non-invasive research on wild nonhuman primates can provide comparative data for reconstructing the potential behaviors of early human ancestors. This doctoral dissertation research project leverages data from a long-studied, wild nonhuman primate population that has undergone significant habitat change. The research focuses on two potential mechanisms shaping social behavior: the distribution of food in a landscape and its quality. The project promotes the progress of science by advancing our understanding of primate sociality and how major climatic shifts may have shaped human social evolution. Additionally, understanding the consequences of long-term habitat change for an endangered primate can inform conservation research and activities. The project also promotes international research collaborations, provides scientific training to undergraduate students and community members, and strengthens community relationships and promotes environmental stewardship through outreach events that highlight habitat recovery in protected landscapes. Chimpanzees show wide variation in sociality and the quality of landscapes they inhabit. Researchers suspect that differences in food availability drive chimpanzee social variation; however, research sites also differ in terms of ecology and methods, which has largely prevented studies directly comparing populations. Long-term data on one population of chimpanzees provide a unique opportunity to explore the consequences of temporal and spatial habitat variation on behavior. Systematic data collection beginning in the 1970s has captured detailed behavioral observations across six decades of significant habitat recovery from anthropogenic disturbance. Supplementing 66 community-years of existing behavioral observations and 20 years of phenology data, the researchers collect original focal follow data and non-invasive urine samples for energetic biomarker analysis. They also use historic feeding data and remote-sensed landscape metrics to construct spatial models of plant food species distribution from 1980-2020. Together, these data are analyzed to establish linkages between food availability, diet composition, individual energetic state, and behavior. The researchers also identify how food distribution influences ranging and sociality, as well as the impact of a given individual’s range quality on their ability to engage in energetically demanding social behaviors. Overall, this research expands understanding of hominin social evolution, the drivers of intraspecific behavioral differences in chimpanzees, and the behavioral consequences of habitat recovery in an endangered primate.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.