A facultative adaptation is a genetic trait the humans posses to help itself from the cold weather. The heart has the ability to constrict the vessels in the heart. This process is called vasoconstriction and it increases the blood pressure and the heart works harder.
A developmental adaptation that humans posses in response to the cold is that people that live in colder climates tend to be shorter and rounder. This helps people in colder climates to stay warm during the cold. Since the person is more rounder the fat stored in the body has the ability to spread within the body and it keeps the organs warm.
As a cultural adaptation to the cold people in colder climates tend to drink more alcohol. Alcohol makes people feel warm by increasing blood flow to the hands and feet of people. This gives people the warm feeling in these climates.
Race can be used to understand variations in adaptations by seeing how countries that live in colder climates adapt to living in these conditions. I would use the Russians in this examples. Russian people live in a cold country. They have adapted over time to handle these conditions when Napoleon tried to invade Russia many died because they could not handle the cold climate that surrounded Russia. The study of environmental influences on adaptations is a better way to understand the adaptations above because all adaptations are different throughout the human race. Race is mostly understood as a physical attribution, people have different ways to adapt and countries have their own ways as well so race is not so accurate when it comes understanding adaptations. Natural selection also plays a big role because people throughout time develop traits and adaptations that help them be better prepared for cold climates or other types of climates that the human race faces.
As a cultural adaptation to the cold people in colder climates tend to drink more alcohol. Alcohol makes people feel warm by increasing blood flow to the hands and feet of people. This gives people the warm feeling in these climates.
Race can be used to understand variations in adaptations by seeing how countries that live in colder climates adapt to living in these conditions. I would use the Russians in this examples. Russian people live in a cold country. They have adapted over time to handle these conditions when Napoleon tried to invade Russia many died because they could not handle the cold climate that surrounded Russia. The study of environmental influences on adaptations is a better way to understand the adaptations above because all adaptations are different throughout the human race. Race is mostly understood as a physical attribution, people have different ways to adapt and countries have their own ways as well so race is not so accurate when it comes understanding adaptations. Natural selection also plays a big role because people throughout time develop traits and adaptations that help them be better prepared for cold climates or other types of climates that the human race faces.
References
3 ways your body
battles the cold. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/three-ways-your-body-battles-w/19490777
Hypothermia.
(2014, May 26). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/hypothermia
Publications, H.
H. (2014, December). How does cold weather affect your health? - Harvard
Health. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from
http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-does-cold-weather-affect-your-health
I found your post very well thought out and executed. Especially your concentration on the heart and the effects cold has on the most important organ in the body. I also appreciate your Russian reference and the history related, it was an interesting aspect I hadn't thought of. Good work! and great pictures!
ReplyDeleteA very thorough exploration into the impact of cold stres. Keep in mind that for thsi asssignment, the focus was relatively narrow on the stress of cold temperatures themselves on the human body. You've identified secondary dangers (illness, increase in heart attacks) which aren't directly the result of cold but happen as a result of a human responding to the cold. The last part about what happens to the body when the core body temperature drops below the optimum level of 98.6 degrees is what we are looking for here.
ReplyDeleteIn general, you have correctly identified the adaptations but have some misconceptions that need to be clarified.
Yes, shivering is a short term response to cold. Goosebumps are a remnant response left over from the days when our ancestors had full coats of hair. The bump is raised from small muscles contracting to raise the follicle and trap insulating air next to the skin. With minimal body hair, this doesn't work anymore, but we are left with the "goose" bumps.
"This process is called vasoconstriction and it increases the blood pressure and the heart works harder."
Yes, but the benefit of vasoconstriction is that it keeps blood in the body core where it is less likely to be lost to the skin surface. Increases in blood pressure and making the heart work harder are negative side effects. They don't help retain heat.
"Since the person is more rounder the fat stored in the body has the ability to spread within the body and it keeps the organs warm."
No, that's not how this works. A rounder, squatter body shape has less surface area for a given mass, meaning less surface area from which to lose heat and a deeper body core to retain heat. Check out Bergmann and Allen's rules in the supplemental material in the assignment folder.
Alcohol does NOT make you warmer. It just makes you FEEL warmer. This is a common misconception, and I'm sure it wasn't in your readings or supplements. Alcohol makes you feel warmer because it actually causes your body temperature to drop minutely relative to the external air, giving the impression of warmth. In actuality, alcohol offers no warmth and by reducing your mental capacity to think and reason, it makes it more likely that you will not escape the cold that threatens you.
I grant that it is wise for us to be familiar with the environment in which we are to travel, as ignorance on this has caused problems, as you have noted from your historical perspective. But we knew that cold weather would be a problem for an army long before we tried to understand human variation from an adaptive approach, correct? Let's bring this up to modern times. How can we take what we learn from the adaptive approach and use it in a productive and concrete manner? Can the body's response to cold stress have any medical implications? Studying how tissues respond to cold and the process of tissue death can have far reaching medical applications. Can we also use this information to produce better clothing for cold-weather environments?
I think you are on the right track with it comes to the final question. Race is of no use to us in understanding why humans vary as they do in their external appearance, for many of the reasons you cite. Race is not a biological concept. It is a socio-cultural construct, created by humans solely for the purpose of categorizing and organizing humans by external phenotypes, and it is subject to our biases and preconceptions. Unlike the environment, race does not *cause* variation in humans. It only categorizes it. Without that causal relationship, you can't use race to explain human variation. Only the adaptive approach can do that.
Thanks for pointing out my mistakes Professor Rodriguez. When I brought up the alcohol aspect I had read that people that lived in colder climates drank more alcohol because it gave the body a sense of feeling warmer but as I reread my post after your comments I realized that I might not have explained correctly in the post.
DeleteThanks for the response. Remember that we are looking for actual adaptations, i.e., traits or cultural practices/tools that really help deal with a stress. So while humans may get an illusion of warmth, in the end, this isn't actually helping their survival, so it is not adaptive.
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