Posts
radiation, (c) cold, or (d) high altitude. Discuss specifically how this environmental stress
negatively impacts the survival of humans by disturbing homeostasis. (5 pts)
Cold environments can affect a person in a negative way and affect people’s survival because if a person does not have the specific requirements needed to survive these cold circumstances then the person can die from hypothermia giving the advantage to the people with a greater body mass.
2. Identify 4 ways in which humans have adapted to this stress, choosing one specific adaptation
from each of the different types of adaptations listed above (short term, facultative,
developmental and cultural). Include images of the adaptations. (5 pts each/ 20 pts total)
For the cold environments humans have adapted different ways to survive:
a) Clothing has played a big role for lean people to survive in the cold environments since it helps lean people be able to survive through the winter.
b) Shivering or shaking being an involuntary movement of the body and also being short term which tries to warm up the body.
c) Exercising is another form in which people are able to keep their body temperature warm by running, jogging, etc.
d) Some people are able to keep warm by having a great amount of body mass which helps make insulation for the cold environment.
3. What are the benefits of studying human variation from this perspective across environmental
clines? Can information from explorations like this be useful to help us in any way? Offer one
example of how this information can be used in a productive way. (5 pts)
The benefits of studying these variations are that we can learn why we seemed to have diversity in the way we look even though we are not different at all. The investigation on different environments can be useful to be able to help us adapt in different climate areas. One example can be the different seasons of the year winter, autumn, spring, summer
4. How would you use race to understand the variation of the adaptations you listed in #2? Explain why the study of environmental influences on adaptations is a better way to understand human variation than by the use of race. (10 pts)
It is really difficult to narrow down to a specific group of people because anyone can wear clothing to be warm; also people have great body mass even if they don’t need it like we have in the U.S. where obesity is growing exponentially. Exercising anyone can do it does not have to be a specific race and shivering that is a mechanism use by everyone when the body is cooling down. In my opinion these circumstances described by me would be really difficult to narrow people by a certain race. But by looking at environmental influences people are able to understand why people look the way they look as in why they have a great amount of body mass or why do they dress the way they do etc.
