I chose to go with heat as my environmental stresses that
negatively impacts our survival as humans. There are many different ways heat
affects out homeostasis, whether it is dehydration to a fatal heat stroke. We as
humans have had many different adaptations that help us with heat problems. The
first being a short term adaptation which would be sweating through our pores,
which then cools our body do
wn and brings our
temperature down. A facultative adaptation humans have is very similar
to a short term adaptation except it takes a little longer to begin. An example
of this would be skin darkening which allows them to not overheat as fast as
someone who is lighter skin color who then gets hot quicker and dehydrates faster.
A developmental adaptation example is humans body shape of populations who live
in higher heat areas tend to have phenotype which allow them to be skinnier.
Someone who is skinnier is less likely to overheat because they don’t need to
carry a lot of heat in their cores. A cultural adaptation example is mainly the
type of clothes we wear, usually in the times with high heat levels humans tend
to wear tank tops, shorts, hats, bathing suits, and they also carry around
water bottles and drinks that keep them hydrated.
The main benefit of studying human variation is so that when
other environmental clines are affected one day which they most likely will be they
have the knowledge of what to do to help them. Having the information of all
different types of human variation can prevent many different health problems. One
example of how that information can be used productively would be when parts of
the world start to become hotter due to global warming they can look back on different
ways to survive the heat and healthy ways to do so.
I couldn’t really use race to understand the variation of
the adaptations because race really wouldn't be able to help me understand
variations of adaptations. Race is a class of people who have the same common
history, or nationality. But by trying to understand variation by race you are
going by the environment which is the main focus. Instead by using
environmental influences on adaptations to understand variation would be easier
because it is based solely on the environment in which a human lives in.
I enjoyed your blog, and you covered many important topics. I liked how you said that studying human variation can help us understand the environment. I did not think about the environmental understanding that it can give us.
ReplyDeleteI think I understand where you are getting at with your explanation for question 4. As far as race goes, since its a social construction, I think it would not be difficult, but actually impossible to explain human variation with our idea of "race" that has been constructed in our society. But the scientific prospective can help us understand that human variations and differences, which is seen as "Race" from our social perspective.
I also liked all the visuals you posted as well!
Good job.
Can you get a little more specific in explaining the biology behind how heat stress and lead to dehydration, heat stroke and other dangers to homeostasis? This would help make the connection between this opening paragraph and your adaptations.
ReplyDeleteIn general, good work on the adaptations. Darkening of the skin is not a faculatative response to heat. It is a response to solar radiation. There may be a incidental benefit of darker skin for the reasons you mention, but that is the reason for that adaption.
Good call on the body shape issue (Bergmann/Allen's rule).
I appreciate that you drew attention to the health impact the adaptive approach could have in section #3.
I agree with your conclusion regarding the lack of usefulness of race in terms of understanding human variation. I don't agree with your characterization of race, however. Race is a system of categories usually based up physical traits. It isn't rooted in history or nationality. That would be "ethnicity".
The key to the problem with race is that it is based upon social constructs, not upon biology. That means it can't be used to explain biological traits. It's too subjective, too shaped by bias.
Overall, good post.
Additional note: You included images but they didn't reflect the adaptations discussed for heat stress.
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