Nutritional landscapes, animal behavior, and forest composition

Many theories about the ecology and evolution of behavior are centered around food resource distribution but the assessments of such distribution are often extremely coarse, and rely on broad categories, such as fruit versus leaves. Therefore, I am exploring new techniques to model temporal and spatial food resource distribution in Kibale and other forested areas. I am mapping large forest areas using drone imagery data, 3D reconstructions of trees, and computer algorithms, and will combine these maps with fruiting and leafing phenology patterns observed in Kibale since 1990 (Kalbitzer et al., Invited for Resubmission) to create “nutritional landscapes”. These landscapes can then be used to investigate how resource distribution is linked to animal behavior. For example, we know that red colobus have high long-term site fidelity (Kalbitzer et al., accepted), and we are now investigating how landscape features, social factors, dietary requirements, and resource distribution affect their movement and foraging patterns. Furthermore, I am planning to use the mapped forest areas to study how climate and the distribution and behavior of animal populations is linked to forest composition (Chapman et al., 2021).