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

栖息地的变化可能是整个人类进化的强大驱动力。虽然化石记录提供了与栖息地和饮食变化相关的身体适应的证据，但尚不清楚食物供应的变化是如何塑造人类社会行为的进化的。为了弥补这一差距，对野生非人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。这一博士论文研究项目利用了长期研究的野生非人类灵长类种群的数据，这些种群经历了显著的栖息地变化。这项研究集中在两个影响社会行为的潜在机制上：食物在景观中的分布和它的质量。该项目通过促进我们对灵长类社会性的理解，以及主要气候变化可能如何塑造人类社会进化，促进了科学的进步。此外，了解濒危灵长类长期栖息地变化的后果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，并通过突出受保护景观中栖息地恢复的外联活动加强社区关系和促进环境管理。黑猩猩在社会性和栖息地的质量方面表现出很大的差异。研究人员怀疑，食物供应的差异导致了黑猩猩的社会差异；然而，研究地点在生态和方法方面也不同，这在很大程度上阻碍了直接比较种群的研究。一个黑猩猩种群的长期数据为探索时空栖息地变化对行为的影响提供了一个独特的机会。从20世纪70年代开始的系统数据收集捕捉到了从人为干扰中恢复栖息地的60年来详细的行为观察。补充了66年现有的社区行为观察和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样，用于能量生物标记物分析。他们还使用历史摄食数据和遥感景观指标来构建1980-2020年植物食物物种分布的空间模型。这些数据一起被分析，以建立食物可获得性、饮食结构、个体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射程和社会性，以及给定个体的射程质量对他们从事高能量要求的社会行为的能力的影响。总体而言，这项研究扩大了对原始人社会进化、黑猩猩种内行为差异的驱动因素以及濒危灵长类栖息地恢复的行为后果的理解。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。

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.