Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Intraspecific Variation and Plasticity in Primate Behavior and Ecology

研究人员已经进行了超过25年的种间比较，以寻求灵长类动物生态变异的解释。这个项目的目的是通过以定量的方式结合种内变异来扩展这个长达数十年的传统。因此，本研究将成为首次在种群水平上对灵长类动物行为和生态变化进行定量分析的综合性比较研究。这种方法可以解决以下问题：1)种群之间的地理距离与生态相似性之间的关系是什么？ 2)影响灵长类动物生态可塑性的重要因素是什么？ 3)生态可塑性较小的物种是否有更高的灭绝风险？将收集来自大约30种灵长类动物的100多个种群的先前发表的数据，以创建一个全面的生态数据库。这些数据将分为五个数据集：1)环境，2)饮食，3)活动预算，4)社会组织和5)社会行为。多变量技术将用于量化每个物种的每个数据集中的变化。比较分析将控制物种的进化关系，地理信息系统软件将用于调查上述问题。这项研究的结果将产生重要的科学影响。在这种更精细的分析水平上检查灵长类动物行为和生态的模式和过程，可以成为确定为什么某些行为和生态特征存在于某些物种而不存在于其他物种的重要方法。此外，了解种间水平变异的重要性将大大受益于本种内研究的结果。最后，确定影响灵长类动物生态可塑性的因素，有助于建立更有效的灵长类动物社会生态学模型。除了科学价值外，该项目还具有相当广泛的影响。灵长类动物种群的生态数据库将在互联网上向公众开放。这将使研究人员能够方便地获取未来研究所需的大量信息。培训和研究机会将提供给协助数据收集和组织的本科生。最后，确定生态可塑性在影响灵长类动物灭绝中的作用将有助于灵长类物种的保护，这些物种对维持森林结构至关重要，并且被视为许多保护计划的旗舰物种。

Researchers have been conducting interspecific comparisons for over twenty-five years to seek explanations for primate ecological variation. The purpose of this project is to expand on this decades-long tradition by incorporating intraspecific variation in a quantitative fashion. As such, this study will serve as the first comprehensive comparative study incorporating quantitative analyses of primate behavior and ecology variation at the population level. This approach allows the following questions to be addressed: 1) What is the relationship between geographic distance and ecological similarity among populations, 2) What factors are important in affecting primate ecological plasticity, 3) Do less ecologically plastic species have a higher risk of extinction? Previously published data from over 100 populations of approximately 30 primate species will be gathered to create a comprehensive ecological database. These data will be grouped into five datasets: 1) environmental, 2) diet, 3) activity budget, 4) social organization, and 5) social behavior. Multivariate techniques will be used to quantify the variation in each dataset for each species. Comparative analyses will control for species' evolutionary relationships and Geographic Information System software will be employed to investigate the above questions. The results of this study will have important scientific ramifications. Examining the patterns and processes of primate behavior and ecology at this finer level of analysis can be an important method of identifying why certain behavioral and ecological traits are present in some species and not others. Also, understanding the significance of variation at the interspecific level will greatly benefit from the results of this intraspecific study. Finally, identifying the factors influencing primate ecological plasticity can lead to more effective models of primate socioecology. Besides the scientific merit, this project has considerable broader impacts. The ecological database of primate populations will be available to the public on the Internet. This will allow researchers easy access to a wealth of information for future studies. Training and research opportunities will be available to undergraduate students that assist in the data collection and organization. Finally, identifying the role that ecological plasticity plays in affecting primate extinction will assist in the conservation of primate species that are vital to the maintenance of forest structure and are viewed as a flagship species for many conservation programs.