Doctoral Dissertation Research: Examining the role of competition in primate dietary morphology

这篇博士论文研究了竞争如何影响灵长类动物的适应过程，验证了灵长类通过集中摄食未充分利用的资源来应对竞争食物资源这一中心假设。这个项目使用牙齿形状的测量来分析特征，并使用稳定同位素分析来检查饮食和冠层的使用情况，通过比较共同生活的种群和分开生活的种群来研究灵长类动物对之间的差异。这项研究可以通过记录由于栖息地丧失而导致的竞争加剧的影响，提供与保护管理计划相关的新信息，以防止灵长类进一步灭绝。为这个项目收集的数据创造了本科生实习的机会，并提供了进行原创研究的协议和程序方面的培训。这项研究的结果将被纳入基于灵长类饮食和保护主题的学习模块。这些学习模块将由当地一个为中小学生提供科学活动的非营利性教育编程组织使用。这个项目提出了两个研究问题：1)与同一物种分开生活时，近亲灵长类物种是否将饮食集中在几个关键的食物项目上？2)关系密切的灵长类物种是否表现出形态特征和同位素特征，反映出与同一物种分开出现时相比，当它们生活在一起时，对关键资源的关注更少？这些问题将使用生态测量方法进行测试，以量化牙齿形状和稳定的同位素数据，以代表饮食和冠层的使用。通过结合分析牙齿形状和与习惯性冠层水平职业相关的同位素特征的方法，该项目将为如何重建饮食行为和资源竞争提供新的视角。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 doctoral dissertation project examines how competition affects primate adaptive processes, testing the central hypothesis that primates respond to competition over food resources by focusing feeding on underutilized resources. Using measures of tooth shape to analyze traits, and stable isotope analysis to examine diet and canopy use, this project looks at differences between primate pairs by comparing populations that live together to populations that live separately. The study can provide new information relevant to conservation management programs to prevent further primate extinction by documenting the impacts of increased competition due to habitat loss. Data collected for this project create undergraduate internship opportunities and provide training in the protocols and procedures of conducting original research. Results from this research will be incorporated into learning modules based on the themes of primate diet and conservation. These learning modules will be utilized by a local non-profit educational programming group that provides scientific activities to elementary and middle school students. This project asks two research questions: 1) do closely-related primate species focus their diet on a few key food items when they live together compared to the same species when they occur separately? and 2) do closely-related primate species display morphological traits and isotopic signatures that reflect focus on fewer key resources when they live together compared to the same species when they occur separately? These questions will be tested using ecometric measures to quantify tooth shape and stable isotope data to represent diet and canopy use. By combining methods to analyze tooth shape and isotopic signatures related to habitual canopy level occupation, this project will provide new perspectives on how to reconstruct dietary behaviors and resource competition.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.