Natural human adaptations. Human adaptation and acclimatization to extreme conditions

Adaptation of a person to a new environment for him is a complex socio-biological process, which is based on a change in the systems and functions of the body, as well as habitual behavior. Human adaptation refers to the adaptive reactions of his body to changing environmental factors. Adaptation manifests itself at different levels of organization of living matter: from molecular to biocenotic. Adaptation develops under the influence of three factors: heredity, variability, natural / artificial selection. There are three main ways that organisms adapt to their environment: the active way, the passive way, and the avoidance of adverse effects.

Active path- strengthening of resistance, development of regulatory processes that allow to carry out all the vital functions of the body, despite the deviation of the environmental factor from the optimum. For example, maintaining a constant body temperature in warm-blooded animals (birds, humans), optimal for the flow of biochemical processes in cells.

Passive way– subordination of the vital functions of the body to changes in environmental factors. For example, under unfavorable environmental conditions, transition to a state of anabiosis (hidden life), when the metabolism in the body almost completely stops (winter dormancy of plants, preservation of seeds and spores in the soil, stupor of insects, hibernation, etc.).

Avoidance of adverse conditions- development by the body of such life cycles and behaviors that allow avoiding adverse effects. For example, seasonal migrations of animals.

Typically, the adaptation of a species to its environment occurs through one or another combination of all three possible adaptation paths.
Adaptations can be divided into three main types: morphological, physiological, ethological.

Morphological adaptations– changes in the structure of the body (for example, modification of a leaf into a spine in cacti to reduce water loss, bright coloring of flowers to attract pollinators, etc.). Morphological adaptations in animals lead to the formation of certain life forms.

Physiological adaptations– changes in the physiology of the body (for example, the ability of a camel to provide the body with moisture by oxidizing fat reserves, the presence of cellulose-degrading enzymes in cellulose-degrading bacteria, etc.).

Ethological (behavioral) adaptations– changes in behavior (for example, seasonal migrations of mammals and birds, hibernation in winter, mating games in birds and mammals during the breeding season, etc.). Ethological adaptations are characteristic of animals.

Living organisms are well adapted to periodic factors. Non-periodic factors can cause illness and even death of a living organism. A person uses this by using antibiotics and other non-periodic factors. However, the duration of their exposure can also cause adaptation to them.
The environment has a huge impact on humans. In this regard, the problem of human adaptation to its environment is becoming increasingly relevant. In social ecology this problem is given paramount importance. At the same time, adaptation is only the initial stage, at which reactive forms of human behavior predominate. The person does not stop at this stage. He exhibits physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual activity, and transforms (for better or worse) his environment.

Human adaptation is divided into genotypic and phenotypic. Genotypic adaptation: a person, outside of his consciousness, can adapt to changed environmental conditions (temperature changes, taste of food, etc.), that is, if the adaptation mechanisms are already embedded in the genes. Phenotypic adaptation means the inclusion of consciousness, one’s personal qualities in order for the body to adapt to a new environment and maintain balance in new conditions.

The main types of adaptation include physiological, adaptation to activity, adaptation to society. Let's focus on physiological adaptation. Physiological adaptation of a person is understood as the process of maintaining the functional state of the body as a whole, ensuring its preservation, development, performance, and maximum life expectancy. Great importance is attached to acclimation and acclimatization in physiological adaptation. It is clear that a person’s life in the Far North is different from his life on the equator, since these are different climatic zones. Moreover, a southerner, having lived for a certain time in the north, adapts to it and can live there permanently and, vice versa. Acclimatization is the initial, urgent stage of acclimatization when climatic and geographical conditions change. In some cases, a synonym for physiological adaptation is acclimatization, that is, the adaptation of plants, animals and humans to new climatic conditions. Physiological acclimatization occurs when a person, with the help of adaptive reactions, increases performance and improves well-being, which can sharply deteriorate during the period of acclimation. When new conditions are replaced by old ones, the body can return to its previous state. Such changes are called acclimatization. The same changes that, in the process of adaptation to a new environment, passed into the genotype and are inherited are called adaptive.

Adaptation of the body to living conditions (city, village, other area). is not limited only by climatic conditions. A person can live in a city or in a village. Many people prefer a metropolis with its noise, pollution, and frantic pace of life. Objectively, living in a village where there is clean air and a calm, measured rhythm is more favorable for people.

This same area of ​​adaptation includes moving, for example, to another country. Some adapt quickly, overcome the language barrier, find a job, others have great difficulty, while others, having externally adapted, experience a feeling called nostalgia.

We can especially highlight adaptation to activity. Different types of human activity make different demands on the individual (some require perseverance, diligence, punctuality, others require speed of reaction, the ability to make independent decisions, etc.). However, a person can cope with both types of activities quite successfully. There are activities that are contraindicated for a person, but he can perform them, since adaptation mechanisms are triggered, which is called the development of an individual style of activity.
Particular attention should be paid to adaptation to society, other people, and the team. A person can adapt to a group by assimilating its norms, rules of behavior, values, etc. The mechanisms of adaptation here are suggestibility, tolerance, conformity as forms of subordinate behavior, and on the other hand, the ability to find one’s place, gain face, and show determination.

We can talk about adaptation to spiritual values, to things, to conditions, for example, stressful ones, and much more. In 1936, the Canadian physiologist Selye published the message “Syndrome Caused by Various Damaging Elements,” in which he described the phenomenon of stress - a general nonspecific reaction of the body aimed at mobilizing its defenses when exposed to irritating factors. In the development of stress, 3 stages were identified: 1. stage of anxiety, 2. stage of resistance, 3. stage of exhaustion. G. Selye formulated the theory of “General Adaptation Syndrome” (GAS) and adaptive diseases as a consequence of the adaptive reaction, according to which OSA manifests itself whenever a person feels a danger to himself. Visible causes of stress can be injuries, postoperative conditions, etc., changes in abiotic and biotic environmental factors. In recent decades, the number of anthropogenic environmental factors with a high stress-generating effect (chemical pollution, radiation, exposure to computers during systematic work with them, etc.) has increased significantly. Environmental stressors should also include negative changes in modern society: an increase, a change in the ratio of the urban and rural population, an increase in unemployment, and crime.

Adaptation of the human body to the conditions of the Far North is part of the adaptation problem of human adaptation to various natural factors. Adaptation to the conditions of the Far North, developing according to the general laws of adaptation to various natural factors and adaptation to new environmental factors in general, is also manifested in the emergence of specific adaptive reactions caused by exposure, again, to the specific factor of high latitudes

It is generally accepted that the peculiarities of adaptation of the human body to the conditions of the Far North are determined by the influence of special natural factors in these areas. Natural conditions in the Far North are much more difficult for human health than in the middle zone. The climate here is well known. But it’s not just the harsh climate and the special lighting regime (polar day or polar night). In the Far North, the human body is affected by cosmic factors, since the Earth’s magnetic field in these latitudes protects the Earth from them much worse than in middle and low latitudes. Therefore, in the Arctic, conditions are not just more difficult due to natural and cosmic factors than in the middle zone, but differ fundamentally from them. Here, many factors affect the human body that do not act at all in the middle zone.

The functioning of a healthy person’s body is always in accordance with external conditions. Therefore, some northerners, who are well adapted to the extreme conditions of the Far North, have many body indicators significantly different from those in the middle zone. In other words, the mid-latitude norm is not suitable for well-adapted northerners. They have their own norm, which they came to as a result of long-term adaptation to northern extreme conditions.

Successful adaptation of the newcomer population of the Far North is an indispensable condition for their good health. Many diseases (cardiovascular and nervous systems, respiratory organs, liver, etc.) in the Far North occur at an earlier age and are more severe than in the middle zone. Often the cause of these diseases here is different than in the middle zone. It is due to the fact that a person does not adapt well to his new natural and cosmic conditions. This means that the body cannot adjust its work to the optimal mode, so its organs and systems work with stress, in overload mode, which leads to the emergence and development of chronic diseases. Thus, most diseases (especially chronic ones) in the Far North are the result of the fact that the human body has not adapted to the difficult conditions of the Far North, or, in other words, they are the result of maladjustment.

When studying the influence of natural factors on the human body, researchers face significant difficulties due to the following circumstances:

1) many meteorological factors simultaneously act on the human body, of which it is extremely difficult to determine the leading one that determines the nature of adaptive reactions;

2) different adaptive reactions of the human body, depending both on the belonging of each to the aborigines of certain natural zones, and on gender, age, belonging to a certain constitutional type, and other individual characteristics of a person.

When a person migrates to the Far North, the circulatory system is one of the first to be included in the adaptation reaction and plays an important role in maintaining the homeostasis of the body in new environmental conditions. Being an important limiting link on which the final adaptive result largely depends, the circulatory system can also serve as a marker of the general adaptation process. Therefore, studying the problem of physiology and pathology of adaptation mechanisms of the cardiovascular system in the Far North is of paramount importance. Researchers who have studied the adaptation of the cardiovascular system in the high latitudes of the Earth note that human migration to these areas is accompanied in some people by various subjective disorders of cardiac origin: shortness of breath, especially during fast walking and physical activity, palpitations and pain in the heart area. The largest number of complaints noted in the first months showed that the interaction of visitors with a complex of factors in the Far North is accompanied by a complex restructuring of regulatory, physiological and metabolic processes and the development of a state of peculiar tension. The emergence of cardiological research in the Arctic was facilitated by practical doctors - participants in the first high-latitude expeditions. Already at that time, they knew well that the success of the expedition largely depended on the state of health and, in particular, the cardiovascular system of its participants, and they selected healthy and hardy people to join it.

Cold is one of the main environmental factors in the Far North, to which the human body and its cardiovascular system have to adapt. Low temperatures, combined with high wind speeds, affect exposed areas of the body surface and the vast vascular and receptor area of ​​the lungs. The position that cold determines the problem of peripheral vascular spasm served as the basis for the widespread opinion at one time about the fatal hypertensive effect of a cold climate. A. Barton and O. Edholm (1957) indicate an increase in blood pressure in humans in cold conditions. Hypertensive reactions in new residents of Norilsk were described by A.T. Pshonik et al. (1965, 1969), N.S. Arutyunova (1966). The high prevalence of hypertension among the population of the Arctic was observed by Yu.F. Menshikov (1965).

On the contrary, other researchers have found a lower level of blood pressure and a lower prevalence of hypertension in the alien population of the Arctic than in the population of the middle latitudes. Ambiguity in changes in blood pressure is also noted in the winterers of Antarctica. There is evidence of both a decrease in their blood pressure and the absence of significant changes in the level of blood pressure during wintering, as well as hypertensive reactions. Particularly severe hypertension occurs in persons migrating to the Arctic with an already developed disease. The materials of the prosectors of medical institutions in Murmansk indicate that among the total number of deaths from cardiovascular diseases, hypertension was recorded much more often than in other cities of the middle zone.

In humans, in cold conditions, an increase in resistance in the peripheral parts of the bloodstream is observed. It is shown that the process of adaptation to the conditions of the Far North is accompanied by the development of morphological and functional changes in the pulmonary circulation, often the formation of the syndrome of primary northern arterial hypertension of the pulmonary circulation and "Magadan pneumopathy", which is considered as the basis of chronic nonspecific lung diseases in the population.

Low blood pressure has been found in the Eskimos of Labrador and Greenland. In people over 60 years of age, there was no systolic pressure level above 140 mm Hg. and not a single case of arterial hypertension has been described. A study of 842 Alaskan Eskimo men aged 17 to 53 years did not reveal a significant increase in blood pressure with age. Thus, at the age of up to 20 years, the average systolic pressure was 98, and at the age of up to 45 years - 104 mmHg. I. S. Kandror (1962, 1968) also reported a low level of blood pressure among the aborigines (Chukchi and Eskimos) of the Arctic. Alaskan Eskimos show little or no increase in blood pressure with age.

“Cold hypoxia” develops in the body. According to M.A. Yakimenko, in the compensation phase, reactions characteristic of hypoxic hypoxia are formed in the body: the utilization of oxygen from the inhaled air and the oxygen transport function of the blood increases), the coefficient of oxygen utilization by tissues increases. The works show that the process of human adaptation in the Far North is accompanied by the formation of a symptom complex similar to chronic hypoxia with corresponding changes in the respiratory and circulatory systems aimed at “fighting” for oxygen.

According to I.S. Kandrora (1968), the basic metabolism among the indigenous inhabitants of the North - the Chukchi and Eskimos, who worked at enterprises and institutions of the Main Northern Sea Route and lived in the same conditions as the population of a given working village, ranged from 108 to 140%; On average for the entire group, the basal metabolic rate was 121%.

To understand the biological meaning of the reactions, it is appropriate to recall I.P. Pavlov, who believed that the body has general and specific functions and needs. The general need of the body in the cold is the constriction of blood vessels, and the particular need is the need to warm the ears and cheeks, that is, to dilate the skin vessels. In this case, a struggle arises between general and private needs.

According to data, vasodilation after constriction is of great importance for protecting the body surface from cooling. G.M. Danishevsky (1970) believed that intermittent blood flow has a positive effect. In fact, constant dilation of blood vessels over a long period of time would ultimately lead to greater heat loss and faster cooling of the body.

As work experience in the North increases, a more rapid and complete restoration of the lumen width of peripheral vessels in areas of the body exposed to cooling is observed. In all likelihood, in the conditions of the North, under the influence of a long-acting intense cold stimulus (-15 -20°C), a restructuring of physical thermoregulation occurs in the direction of accelerating the restoration of blood flow in cooled areas of the body, which leads to an increase in the heat-protective properties of the body. Under the influence of weak cold stimuli in certain parts of the body (air temperature 0°+5°C), no such restructuring was noted (N.I. Bobrov et al., 1979). In the works of I.A. Arnoldi (1962) also did not observe the above phenomena in studies of cooling the upper extremities in humans with water (+5°C).

To identify changes in the skin temperature of the subjects, a functional cooling test was carried out, which consisted of a single cooling of the upper or lower extremities with water at a temperature of +5°C for 30 minutes (N.I. Bobrov et al., 1979). In the vast majority of subjects with a short period of work in the North, the skin temperature of the upper extremities dropped to +7°C when cooled. For the majority of people with work experience in the North from 1 to 2 years, the skin temperature of the cooled areas (upper limbs) decreased over the same period of time to +9°C, +11°C. And finally, in the vast majority of people who worked in the North for more than 2 years, the skin temperature almost at the end of cooling dropped only to +9°C, +14°C.

Activation of thermoregulation centers is carried out due to the excitation of cold receptors, which in rats can account for up to 86% of all thermoreceptors (Kozyreva T.V., Yakimenko M.A., 1979).

These receptors respond to rapid cooling with a phase reaction of increased impulses (Minut-Sorokhtina O.P., 1979). Moreover, the thermoregulatory reaction, namely an increase in heat production, can develop only with cooling of peripheral parts of the body, for example, human limbs. This was demonstrated by VanSomeren (1982), who, when people were completely immersed in water at 29°C, observed a drop in body temperature by 0.5°-1.4°C. However, if the hands and feet were additionally cooled with water at a temperature of 12°C, then general hypothermia did not develop.

At a comfortable ambient temperature and the absence of activation of skin receptors, thermoregulatory reactions can also be activated when deep tissues are cooled. This was shown in the experiments of Jessen (1981), carried out on goats with implanted heat exchangers, which made it possible to change the temperature of the “core” of the body while the temperature of the “shell” remained unchanged.

Man has an amazing ability to adapt to any climatic conditions. I have always been amazed at how people can live in one area or another, but they live and do not complain. In fact, you can get used to any conditions, the main thing is desire and motivation. Personally, I would not like to live in cold or heat, but sometimes circumstances develop in such a way that you have to get used to new living conditions.

Human adaptation to climatic conditions

In order to reveal the topic of human adaptation, you need to look into the past several tens of thousands of years. Everyone knows that about thirty thousand years ago, a significant part of the planet’s territory was covered with glaciers. During the Ice Age, mammoths became extinct, but humans continued to live.

People have adapted perfectly to the new conditions that have arisen on the planet. They built warmer housing, came up with warm clothes and survived normally. This is the most striking example of adaptation, in my opinion.

People in ancient times conquered more and more territories, settled on different continents, in different climatic conditions. Thanks to evolution, they adapted well to the conditions where they lived. Here are the changes that helped a person adapt:

• skin color changed depending on the climate;
• facial features changed, for example, eye shape;
• lifestyle changed depending on climatic conditions.

In fact, a person can survive in any conditions on our planet.

Modern examples of human adaptation

Nowadays, too, sometimes we have to adapt. For example, people who live in a temperate climate can move to the Arctic due to various circumstances. There they have to get used to the cold, polar day or night, and the like.

What can we say about those who live and work at the North or South Poles. But after some time, the body gets used to any changes. This may not happen painlessly, there are allergies, for example, to cold or heat, but still, the end result is that a person can work and live in any conditions on the planet.

While studying this issue, I came across quite a lot of scientific opinions. Some highlight a deeper specification of methods, some unite humans and animals on the issue of adaptability, but all agree on one thing: long-term living in certain conditions affects the offspring of the species. This is where the emergence of human races came from.

Human adaptability to natural conditions

This process is correctly called adaptation, and it can be genotypic and phenotypic. The first involves the use of adaptation mechanisms embedded in genes, i.e., outside human consciousness. For example, if you eat the same food for a long time, it will become familiar and even tasty, although before the person did not like it. Phenotypic adaptation involves physiological restructuring of the body:

• Normalization of pressure in unfamiliar environmental conditions.
• Metabolic stability.
• Development of performance.

This stage of adaptation may take a long time, but it also has the opposite effect: if a person returns to previous conditions, his body will rebuild itself faster. Also, as part of adaptation, the process of acclimatization occurs, i.e., the body adjusts specifically to the difference in temperature, humidity, etc.

This is also a long process, and therefore, when a tourist arrives at a warm resort, he does not undergo an acclimatization process, but acclimation. This is the name given to the initial, urgent stage of changes in the body’s functioning when climatic and geographical conditions change. Since a resort holiday is often short-lived, the body does not complete acclimatization.

People's lives in different conditions

It is nutrition and climate that are the basic elements for the creation of different races. Asians are accustomed to consuming plant foods - rice, so their cheekbones are weakly expressed, unlike the Scandinavians, who ate meat and required effort to chew it.

People with white skin color live in countries where there is little sun, and people with black skin live in countries where it shines constantly. Negroids' curly hair provides them with a good cover against sunstroke, but northern whites have no use for it.

Gavrilova Alina

A person's environment is what surrounds him and gives him the opportunity to exist. It is both constant and changeable, and you need to live in this environment. Therefore, a person must adapt to his environment. The purpose of this work was to study the adaptation of the peoples of Russia to environmental conditions

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Municipal autonomous educational institution

Secondary school No. 5

named after Yu.A. Gagarin.

Adaptation of the peoples of Russia to environmental conditions
environments

Contest "My many-sided Russia"

Performed

10th grade student

Gavrilova A.V.

Supervisor:

Biology teacher

Bragina Galina Sergeevna

Tambov

2013

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3
2. Culture of the peoples of Russia………………….…………………………….3
3. The relationship between adaptation to environmental conditions and the culture of peoples………………………………………………….……..4
4. The peoples of Russia and their adaptive physiological indicators.4
5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………...5
6. Literature………………………………………………………………………………...7

Introduction

“Environment” is a generalized concept that characterizes the natural conditions in a specifically chosen place and the ecological state of the area. As a rule, the use of the term refers to the description of natural conditions on the Earth's surface, the state of its local and global ecosystems and their interaction with humans. The term is used in this meaning in international agreements.

A person's environment is what surrounds him and gives him the opportunity to exist. It is both constant and changeable, and you need to live in this environment. Therefore, a person must adapt to his environment. The purpose of my work was to study the adaptation of the peoples of Russia to environmental conditions.

In accordance with the goal, the following tasks were identified:

1. Get acquainted with the peoples living on the territory of the Russian Federation;
2. To trace the connection between the culture of peoples and the environment;
3. Understand the physiological mechanisms of adaptation of the human body to various environmental conditions.

Culture of the peoples of Russia

In total, about 180 different ethnic groups live in the country, and each of them has its own cultural heritage - its own traditions, customs and way of life.

The talent of the peoples of Russia manifested itself most clearly in trades and crafts. Take, for example, the Central region, how many unique folk crafts there are. These are Fedoskino lacquer miniatures, Zhostovo painting, Abramtsevo-Kudrinsk wood carving and Khotkovsk bone carving, Bogorodsk toy and Pavlovo Posad shawl crafts, Gzhel porcelain and majolica, Zagorsk wood painting. Equally unique folk arts and crafts exist in the vast expanses of Siberia and the Far East. They continue the ancient traditions of harvesting and processing raw materials, making and decorating products from fur, wool, wood, birch bark, cedar root and other materials. The original art of processing birch bark has been preserved among the peoples of the Amur region - Nanai, Ulchi, Orochi, Udege, Nivkh; making various things from it for your household, in particular, dishes. The art of metal processing among the peoples of the North Caucasus is widely known throughout the world. You can name the village of Kubachi in Dagestan - one of the large centers for the production of forged and embossed products from copper and brass, which is famous for cast bronze cauldrons, embossed brass jugs, ritual vessels, decorative trays, various bowls, cups.

The peoples of the North are famous for their products made of fur, leather and bone, the Tatars for their culinary arts, and the Udmurts for various types of handicrafts (embroidery, patterned knitting, weaving). Each nation has a reason to be proud!

The relationship between adaptation to environmental conditions and the culture of peoples

Adaptation is the process of establishing such a way of interaction between a people and the environment that allows the people to survive in this environment.

Culture is the primary mechanism by which human groups adapt to their environment. Culture contains such models of behavior, following which makes it possible to obtain food for oneself, build dwellings, and make clothes in the most rational way for the existing geographical and climatic conditions.

The peoples of Russia and their adaptive physiological indicators

The Russian Federation is home to 40 indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, the total number of which is about 244 thousand people. These include the Aleuts, Dolgans, Koryaks, Mansi, Nanai, Nenets, Sami, Selkup, Khanty, Chukchi, Evenki, Eskimos and others. Also in the North live indigenous peoples who are not small in number - these are the Komi and Yakuts, whose number exceeds 400 thousand people.

Physiological indicators of residents of the North:

1. Stocky build with well-developed musculoskeletal mass, cylindrical chest shape. Their face has an oval shape, a wide flattened nose, and a narrow eye shape. These features help reduce heat transfer under supercooling conditions.
2. Energy processes are more intense. The sensitivity of cold receptors is reduced. The redistribution of blood flow between the superficial and deep blood vessels of the body and, especially, the limbs, limits heat loss through the skin and helps stabilize the temperature regime of the “core” of the body. Their basal metabolism is increased.
3. An increased gamma globulin fraction of serum causes an improvement in the immune properties of the body.
4. Puberty is delayed. The percentage of women infertility and premature births is high. Pathologies are common.

Residents of the mountainous regions of the Russian Federation: Altaians, Ossetians, Kabardians, Balkars, Adygeis, Karachais, Chechens, Ingush.

Physiological indicators of highland residents:

1. Massive physique. A large chest is combined with a higher vital capacity of the lungs. The relative increase in the long bones of the skeleton is associated with bone marrow hypertrophy, which correlates with increased erythropoiesis.
2. Slowing down of growth processes and timing of puberty.
3. The uniformity of alveolar ventilation of all lobes of the lung, optimal ventilation-perfusion ratios and high diffusion abilities of the alveoli allow the mountain native to ventilate the lungs less intensively. The large oxygen capacity of the blood and the high affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen create conditions for moderate activity of the cardiovascular system. The body's necessary demand for oxygen is satisfied due to better utilization of O 2 in tissues due to more efficient organization of the biophysical mechanisms of cellular metabolism.

Indigenous population of Primorye: Udege, Nanai, Tazy.

Physiological indicators of residents of Primorsky Krai:

1. During the winter monsoon, a person's metabolism is increased, body temperature and oxygen consumption are slightly increased 2 . The tone of the sympathetic nervous system and blood vessels is enhanced. Increased blood pressure.
2. During the summer monsoon, basal metabolic rate, body temperature, and oxygen consumption are reduced. 2 , blood vessel tone and blood pressure. The tone of the parasympathetic system is increased.

Conclusion

My work has shown that there is a relationship between the culture of peoples and adaptation to environmental conditions. This connection cannot but exist, since through their culture people adapt to the world around them.

Since people inhabit different climatic and geographical regions, their adaptive physiological indicators are different.