Doctoral Dissertation Research: Female Great Ape Behavior and Reproduction in Forest Fragments

这篇博士论文研究了栖息地碎片化如何影响野生雌性黑猩猩，特别是评估了森林碎片化和食物可获得性对雌性行为和繁殖性能的影响。该项目将促进有关物种对环境变化反应的基础知识。此外，随着人类土地利用迅速改变森林，了解灵长类如何应对栖息地丧失和碎片化对它们的成功保护至关重要。成果将帮助利益攸关方制定和通过有效的森林碎片管理计划，以确保保护黑猩猩和相关的生物多样性。该项目还提供了通过公共宣传和让本科生参与实地数据收集和分析的培训机会。这项研究将利用两个森林碎片，它们在种群密度上相似，但在食物丰度和接近更大的黑猩猩种群方面有所不同。碎片化通常与粮食资源的大量损失并存，调查中的森林碎片之一就是这种情况。然而，另一个碎片仍然由原始森林组成，这提供了一个强大的自然实验，通过它来测试碎片化的影响，而不是食物的可获得性。该项目的主要假设是，女性的行为将更多地受到食物供应和隔离的影响，而不是支离破碎。或者，雌性黑猩猩可能有足够的行为灵活性，因为它们流畅的社会系统可以减轻分裂的负面后果。通过整合新的和现有的生态和行为数据集，该项目将测试栖息地碎片化如何影响雌性黑猩猩的亚群模式、扩散和最终的繁殖性能。分组数据将通过对成年雌性的全天焦点跟踪和每月沿线横断面的巢穴调查来收集。将通过非侵入性收集的粪便样本产生的遗传数据来评估雌性的传播行为。最后，女性的生殖表现将从两个指标来表征：成年女性依附婴儿的比率和通过非侵入性采集的尿样测量的C-肽值。这一奖项反映了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。

This doctoral dissertation project examines how habitat fragmentation affects wild female chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), specifically assessing the consequences of forest fragmentation and food availability on female behavior and reproductive performance. The project will advance fundamental knowledge about species responses to environmental change. In addition, as human land use rapidly alters forests, understanding how primates cope with habitat loss and fragmentation is of paramount import to their successful conservation. Results will help stakeholders develop and adopt efficient management plans for forest fragments to ensure the protection of chimpanzees and related biodiversity. This project also presents opportunities for training through public outreach and by engaging undergraduate students in field data collection and analyses. This study will take advantage of two forest fragments which are similar in population density but differ in terms of food abundance and proximity to a larger chimpanzee population. Fragmentation usually co-occurs with substantial loss of food resources, as is the case for one of the forest fragments under investigation. However, the other fragment is still comprised of primary forest, presenting a powerful natural experiment through which to test the effect of fragmentation independent of food availability. The overarching hypothesis of this project is that female behavior will be more impacted by food availability and isolation than fragmentation. Alternatively, female chimpanzees may have sufficient behavioral flexibility due to their fluid social system to mitigate negative consequences of fragmentation. By integrating novel and existing ecological and behavioral datasets, this project will test how habitat fragmentation impacts female chimpanzee subgrouping patterns, dispersal and ultimately, reproductive performance. Subgrouping data will be collected through full day focal follow of adult females and monthly nest surveys along line transects. Female dispersal behavior will be assessed through genetic data, which will be generated from non-invasively collected fecal samples. Finally, female reproductive performance will be characterized from two metrics: the adult female-clinging infant ratio and C-peptide values measured through non-invasively collected urine samples.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.