To understand how species will respond to environmental changes, it is important to know how those changes will affect the ecological stress that animals experience. Time constraints can be used as indicators of ecological stress. Here we test whether time constraints can help us understand group sizes, distribution patterns, and community sizes of forest guenons (Cercopithecus/Allochrocebus). Forest guenons typically live in small to medium sized one-male–multifemale groups and often live in communities with multiple forest guenon species. We developed a time-budget model using published data on time budgets, diets, body sizes, climate, and group sizes to predict maximum ecologically tolerable group and community sizes of forest guenons across 202 sub-Saharan African locations. The model correctly predicted presence/absence at 83% of these locations. Feeding-foraging time (an indicator of competition) limited group sizes, while resting and moving time constraints shaped guenon biogeography. Predicted group sizes were greater than observed group sizes but comparable to community sizes, suggesting community sizes are set by competition among guenon individuals irrespective of species. We conclude that time constraints and intraspecific competition are unlikely to be the main determinants of relatively small group sizes in forest guenons. Body mass was negatively correlated with moving time, which may give larger bodied species an advantage over smaller bodied species under future conditions when greater fragmentation of forests is likely to lead to increased moving time. Resting time heavily depended on leaf consumption and is likely to increase under future climatic conditions when leaf quality is expected to decrease.

中文翻译：

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时间限制并不限制树栖古农的群体规模，但确实解释了群落规模和分布模式


要了解物种如何应对环境变化，重要的是要了解这些变化将如何影响动物所经历的生态压力。时间限制可以用作生态压力的指标。在这里，我们测试时间限制是否可以帮助我们了解森林长尾猴（Cercopithecus/Allochrocebus）的群体规模、分布模式和群落规模。森林长尾猴通常生活在中小型的一雄多雌群体中，并且经常生活在有多种森林长尾猴物种的群落中。我们利用已发布的时间预算、饮食、体型、气候和群体规模数据开发了一个时间预算模型，以预测 202 个撒哈拉以南非洲地区森林长尾猴的最大生态耐受群体和群落规模。该模型正确预测了 83% 的这些位置的存在/不存在。进食-觅食时间（竞争指标）限制了群体规模，而休息和移动时间的限制则塑造了古农生物地理学。预测的群体规模大于观察到的群体规模，但与群落规模相当，这表明群落规模是由长尾猴个体之间的竞争决定的，与物种无关。我们的结论是，时间限制和种内竞争不太可能成为森林长尾猴群体规模相对较小的主要决定因素。体重与移动时间呈负相关，这可能会使体型较大的物种在未来条件下比体型较小的物种更具优势，因为森林的进一步破碎化可能会导致移动时间增加。休息时间在很大程度上取决于叶子的消耗，并且在未来的气候条件下，当叶子质量预计会下降时，休息时间可能会增加。