Maternally mediated effects of early-life adversity on offspring trajectories in mandrills

雌性哺乳动物承担了大部分繁殖成本，因为它们在怀孕和哺乳方面的独家投资，以及它们通常要高得多的父母投资。然而，母亲们在许多已知的影响婴儿发育和健康的特征上存在差异。在这方面特别令人感兴趣的是最近的研究，报告了母亲早期生活中的逆境对其后代的负面影响，但到目前为止，这些代际母亲影响只在狒狒身上详细描述过，其他几项研究的初步结果得出了不同的结果。在这个项目中，我们将测试一组曼陀罗(曼陀罗狮身人面像)中两组问题的预测，这些问题有大约300个已知成员，以阐明这种代际传播的细节：1)母亲经历的不良早期生活影响以及母亲的状况、压力、经历和等级在产生母亲护理和风格的个体间差异方面的相对重要性是什么？2)母亲护理和风格的变化对社会和身体发展以及她们后代健康的决定因素有什么影响？为了解决这些问题，我将把行为观察与人口统计、生理和气候数据结合起来，其中大部分数据已经作为这个长期项目的常规数据收集的一部分。未来几年的更多数据将作为博士项目的一部分进行收集。这个项目将产生重要的比较数据和对产妇护理差异的原因和后果的新见解，这些应该远远超出动物行为领域的兴趣。

Female mammals bear the bulk of the costs of reproduction because of their exclusive investment in gestation and lactation as well as their typically much higher parental investment. However, mothers differ in many traits that are known to affect infant development and fitness. Of particular interest in this context are recent studies reporting negative effects of maternal early-life adversities for their own offspring, but these inter-generational maternal effects have so far only been detailed in baboons and preliminary results from a few other studies yielded heterogeneous results. In this project, we will test predictions of two sets of questions in a group of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) with about 300 individually known members to illuminate details of this inter-generational transmission: 1) What is the relative importance of adverse early-life effects experienced by mothers as well as maternal condition, stress, experience and rank in generating interindividual variation in maternal care and style? 2) What are the consequences of variation in maternal care and style for the social and physical development as well as the fitness determinants of their offspring? To address these questions, I will combine behavioral observations with demographic, physiological and climate data, the bulk of which is already available as part of routine data collection in this long-term project. Additional data during the upcoming years will be collected as part of a PhD project. This project will yield important comparative data and new insights into the causes and consequences of variation in maternal care that should be of interest far beyond the field of animal behavior.