Human Adaption
Adaption to the COLD
When humans are presented to freezing weather, we struggle at producing heat faster than it is lost. When you are exposed to temperatures like these you can develop serious affects like hypothermia which can result in death caused by the destruction of your stored energy trying to keep you warm. Weather like this is also hard on the human body because it can be harsh on your cardiovascular system in result to having your blood vessels constrict and having a shallow breath.
Short Term Adaption
One short term adaption humans have is naturally your body will send signals to your sweat glands notifying them that you're cold and you will start to shiver to create warmth, this is how your body maintains homeostasis. 
Facultative Adaption
When in the cold your body will Constrict blood vessel by muscles in their walls this is called vasoconstriction. When the blood vessels are constricted this results in helping heat loss from warm blood and will protect your core temperatures.
Development Adaption
Under the stress of the cold humans consume high calorie food as a result this increases their basal metabolic rate which produces extra body heat to stay warm.
Cultural Adaption
The Inuit people made Igloos as a shelter and to stay warm. an Igloo is made out of ice but used to keep warm by the thermal conductivity of air resulting in effective insulation. Eskimos can even start a fire inside an igloo without it melting for long periods of time.
1. Learning about human variation on environmental clines is important knowledge to obtain to take on environmental challenges on a regional level. Helping generations to come by learning and obtaining skills to tackle these challenges. Information we discover can be useful towards genetic testing through a specific climate or environment frequencies. An example we can use this information for is explaining why we have certain traits from height, to skin color and even genetic diseases.
2. I believe adaption is what created race, the way someone looks is due to where they come from. Melanin is what causes the pigmentation in hair, skin color and eyes, your melanin is protecting you from the ultraviolet radiation in that region. The mass population of dark pigmented people live in the southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere is where ultraviolet radiation is reduced, where the less pigmented people are. for example even body type can be affected by variation of adaption if its cold your body is going to store more fat and make you look more rounded which results in keeping you warm. Natural selection takes place in these regions and the traits that are more suitable for the environment will evolve and survive in these regions and thus, race has formed.
Hi Lie!
ReplyDeleteI had a similar blog post about the cold as well! I feel like when compared to the hotter temperatures, living in the cold must seem the hardest. For example, the demand of specific high fat foods, shelter, and a heat source, are a lot. I also agree on your standpoint, race originates from adaptation. People in different regions have differing skin due to their environment.
Overall, good opening description of the dangers of cold stress. But how does cold cause "shallow breaths"? And couldn't a person die from cold stress if exposed too long to it?
ReplyDeleteShort term: Shivering IS a short term adaptation to cold stress but doesn't work from your sweat glands. Shivering results from small, involuntary muscle contractions, which create heat.
Facultative: Good! This is called "vasocontriction". Note that this can't occur too long or the body risks cell death or "frost bite". What kicks in is something called "Hunter's Reaction" which is altering between vasoconstriction and vasodilation to reduce heat lost but attempt to keep the superficial tissues alive.
Developmental: What you are describing here is a trait that can change during a person's lifetime. That is a *facultative* trait, not developmental. An example of a developmental adaptation to cold stress is would be body shape, as explained by Bergmann and Allen's rules. Take some time to review those concepts in the Course Resources module.
Cultural: Good!
A couple of points from your "benefits" section:
"Helping generations to come by learning and obtaining skills to tackle these challenges."
But most of these traits are not under our control. They aren't "skills" to learn. They are biological traits that happen or exist without our input.
"An example we can use this information for is explaining why we have certain traits from height, to skin color and even genetic diseases."
I agree that knowledge is always useful, but can you identify a way this knowledge can be useful in a concrete way? Can knowledge on adaptations to cold climates have medical implications? Help us develop clothing that retains heat more efficiently? Can we develop new means of home/building construction that might help increase heat retention? How can we actually use this information in an applied fashion?
Race: "I believe adaption is what created race"
Excellent! What you are explaining here is the *causal relationship* and its directionality.
We can use environmental pressures to explain human variation because it *causes* that variation through adaptations.
Race does NOT cause variation. It only describes it in its role as a social construct. It functions to categorize humans, like organizing a box of crayons. Without that causal relationship, race has not explanatory power with regard to human variation.
Hey, I'm glad we share similar views on what race is. I like to think about it as a classification of traits. These traits were of course passed down to us and I also like how you gave more examples and not just skin color. All races have different body types and it is important to note that.
ReplyDeleteHey, thank you for the good information about adaptions to the cold weather! It was interesting to hear your insightful comment about the relationship between environmental pressure and race. I also believe that racial traits are influenced by the environment.
ReplyDeleteHey Lie! Your blog post is very informative and it was fun to read! I enjoyed the pictures you included and there were lots of interesting terms I've never heard of, such as vasoconstriction. It's interesting to learn how our bodies adapt to the cold by protecting our temperatures and maintaining homeostasis. The cultural adaptation to the cold was also interesting! I wonder how long it takes for native groups, such as the Inuit like you mentioned, to build an igloo. I would've expected for igloos to melt if there was a fire inside it, but it clearly provides as a protection from the cold and even effective insulation. I also agree with you about how information from this is helpful in learning about genetic variation which can then be utilized in research and medicine.
ReplyDeleteHi Lie, I focused on solar radiation in my blog post, so your post was very interesting to me. I like the short-term adaptation you chose. I think shivering is the perfect example of this; however, shivering is caused by your muscles rapidly tightening and relaxing. Other than that, I love this example. I also like your explanation of cultural adaptation. I’ve learned about igloos before, and your description of them was wonderful.
ReplyDelete