Short term adaption: the most common short term adaption to heat is our ability to sweat through are 1.6 million sweat glands. Sweat cools are body through evaporative cooling that occurs when we sweat and our sweat evaporates
Facultative adaption: body hair varies in length. however shorter body hair increases the effects of evaporative cooling from sweat while longer hair decreases those effects and actually aid in retaining heat.
Developmental adaptation: having greater mass and shorter height aids in retaining heat and isn't suitable in high heat areas or situations as a person would heat up quickly. However being leaner and taller with longer arms and legs lessens the amount of heat that is retained. in addition people in hotter climates have darker skin while people in colder climates generally have lighter skin
Cultural adaptation: in order to accommodate hot weather we have designed thinner and less restrictive clothes. in addition we also have air conditioning and fans which make the area they are installed in cooler despite how hot it may be outside of said area.
studying human perspective across environmental clines is beneficial because it eliminates biased based on race. In addition its more accurate then judging by race since a persons skin color can change depending on their exposure to the sun with greater exposure resulting in becoming darker then you originally were while less exposure can make one paler in addition there are diseases that can cause one to change pigmentation and like vitilgo.
I would use race more like an aftermath of adaptation to show that environmental changes lead to the different variations of races that are accustomed to different climates.
My son is a huge fan of Key and Peele, so I appreciate that first image!
ReplyDeleteGood explanation of the problems related to heat stress and three of your four adaptations were correct and well explained (short term, developmental and cultural). The facultative trait you list is actually development. Body hair is a genetically controlled trait that doesn't change in your lifetime. Facultative traits are genetic traits that can be turned on and off as needed. That doesn't describe body hair, correct? An example of a facultative trait for heat is vasodilation of the capillaries, sending blood to the skin's surface to release excess heat.
I like your explanation of the benefits of the adaptive approach because you emphasize that it eliminates the problems brought on by race, but then in your final line, you then try to find a way to make race useful. Why? It is okay to say that race is not useful for scientific purposes, in fact it is important that you recognize this fact. Race is a social construct, not a biological one, and as such it is subjected to cultural bias. It has no basis in biology, so why would you want to use it to objectively understand biological traits?
Very interesting that having greater mass and shorter height aids in retaining heat and isn't suitable in high heat areas or situations as a person would heat up quickly. And being leaner and taller with longer arms and legs lessens the amount of heat that is retained. Also very interesting to see how other cultures dress because of their environment and culture combined
ReplyDeleteNice post.
ReplyDeleteI chose cold so it was refreshing to learn opposite methods we use to counteract the effects heat has on homeostasis. I also liked your photos very creative choices