Righini Nicoletta
Red de Manejo Biorracional de Plagas y Vectores, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois.
Am J Primatol. 2017 Apr;79(4):1-5. doi: 10.1002/ajp.22634. Epub 2017 Jan 11.
Nutritional ecology seeks to explain, in an ecological and evolutionary context, how individuals choose, acquire, and process food to satisfy their nutritional requirements. Historically, studies of primate feeding ecology have focused on characterizing diets in terms of the botanical composition of the plants consumed. Further, dietary studies have demonstrated how patch and food choice in relation to time spent foraging and feeding are influenced by the spatial and temporal distribution of resources and by social factors such as feeding competition, dominance, or partner preferences. From a nutritional perspective, several theories including energy and protein-to-fiber maximization, nutrient mixing, and toxin avoidance, have been proposed to explain the food choices of non-human primates. However, more recently, analytical frameworks such as nutritional geometry have been incorporated into primatology to explore, using a multivariate approach, the synergistic effects of multiple nutrients, secondary metabolites, and energy requirements on primate food choice. Dietary strategies associated with nutrient balancing highlight the tradeoffs that primates face in bypassing or selecting particular feeding sites and food items. In this Special Issue, the authors bring together a set of studies focusing on the nutritional ecology of a diverse set of primate taxa characterized by marked differences in dietary emphasis. The authors present, compare, and discuss the diversity of strategies used by primates in diet selection, and how species differences in ecology, physiology, anatomy, and phylogeny can affect patterns of nutrient choice and nutrient balancing. The use of a nutritionally explicit analytical framework is fundamental to identify the nutritional requirements of different individuals of a given species, and through its application, direct conservation efforts can be applied to regenerate and protect specific foods and food patches that offer the opportunity of a nutritionally balanced diet.
营养生态学试图在生态和进化背景下解释个体如何选择、获取和加工食物以满足其营养需求。历史上，灵长类动物觅食生态学的研究主要集中在根据所食用植物的植物学组成来描述其饮食。此外，饮食研究还表明，与觅食和进食所花费时间相关的斑块和食物选择如何受到资源的时空分布以及诸如进食竞争、优势地位或伙伴偏好等社会因素的影响。从营养角度来看，已经提出了几种理论，包括能量和蛋白质与纤维最大化、营养混合以及毒素规避，以解释非人类灵长类动物的食物选择。然而，最近，诸如营养几何学等分析框架已被纳入灵长类学，以采用多变量方法探索多种营养素、次生代谢物和能量需求对灵长类动物食物选择的协同作用。与营养平衡相关的饮食策略突出了灵长类动物在绕过或选择特定觅食地点和食物项目时所面临的权衡。在本期特刊中，作者汇集了一系列研究，重点关注一组饮食重点存在显著差异的灵长类分类群的营养生态学。作者展示、比较并讨论了灵长类动物在饮食选择中使用的策略的多样性，以及生态、生理、解剖和系统发育方面的物种差异如何影响营养选择和营养平衡模式。使用营养明确的分析框架对于确定给定物种不同个体的营养需求至关重要，通过其应用，可以直接开展保护工作，以再生和保护提供营养均衡饮食机会的特定食物和食物斑块。
