Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Food and Water on Movement and Gut Microbiome Diversity

Nonhuman primates employ different strategies to locate resources such as food and water that support survival and reproduction. This doctoral dissertation research project examines how wild Kinda baboons’ movement strategies vary according to the distribution of resources in complex environments, and how their dietary choices affect the distribution of bacteria in their guts.

Results from the study will provide important insights linking evolutionary strategies to search for foodstuffs to physiological outcomes in a social primate. While conducting the work, the doctoral student will participate in educational science programs for under-served K-12 students and engage in public science through scientific blogs and social media.

Additionally, the project will provide scientific training opportunities for diverse undergraduate students and a U.S.-based graduate student.

The research investigates how the distribution of key nutritional resources – food and water – affect how baboons move through their environments. Research suggests that consuming different dietary resources impacts primate gut microbiomes, the microorganisms inhabiting the gut, which, in turn affect primate biology and health. This research uses data drawn from individual baboons residing in natural settings to complement scholarship that is based on environmental and climate proxies rather than direct evidence of nutritional choices.

It also adds an explicit focus on water - a critical resource in dry environments and a source of gut bacteria - to understand how diverse dietary choices among individual baboons relate to gut health. The investigators will follow a habituated troop of Kinda baboons to collect behavioral (e.g., diet and movement) and biological (e.g., baboon fecal and water sample) data.

Next, they will employ cutting-edge movement ecology analyses (e.g., hidden Markov models) to test different hypotheses related to baboon movement strategies. They will then quantify baboon microbiome diversity and analyze its relationship to water microbiome diversity and pathogen levels (e.g., E. coli and Giardia abundance).

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.