Short-Term Adaptation
An example of short-tern adaptation with this stress would be using a mask to make up for the lost intake of air particles and give you more condensed air. This is a "quick fix," but will definitely not last forever to allow life at such high altitudes.
Facultative Adaptation
An example of facultative adaptation is if at a high altitude, the body increases the oxygen carrying on the red blood cells to push more oxygen through the body. This would increase respiration and oxygen supply to the body. This, however is also a "quick fix," meaning, the body could keep up this change in phenotype forever, for the increased respiration could lead to hyperventilation if prolonged over a long duration of time.
Developmental Adaptation
Unlike the previous type of adaptation, the developmental adaption process is actually developed into the DNA. This is not a quick process and can take many generations to develop. An example of this would be if the body showed traits of higher fitness of the lungs and heart to keep the blood flow strong and continuous for successful life.
Cultural Adaptations
This type of adaptation has to do with tools, clothing, and other equipment of a culture. An example of this, again, would be the mask as well a maybe some increased lung capacity due to a cultural shift in thinking to attain more fit bodies.
This information can be helpful to us understanding the human body more and to understanding the differences between the different "races" of humans, which actually happen to be very few intrinsically. This can lead us to a way for finding a way to make peace with each other and to be one as a species on this planet. We can move forward and lead our world to a better place.
The difference between races, biologically anyway, is very similar and nor extremely varied. The only thing that separates us us the difference in skin color and how people interpret the meaning behind the difference. The only reason our skins colors vary , is because where we originated from, our ancestors, vary. Melanin, is a pigment property in our bodies which give us the different color skin. This different pigments were only meant to protect us from the dangers we faced in our own cultures. Melanin is a primary protect from the sun for us. It is a natural sun screen, but somewhere along the way, this was corrupted in the what it is today.
First off, great images! They just jump off the page at your reader!
ReplyDeleteGood description on the dangers of high altitude stress. Are their any additional dangers that might impact women when they are pregnant and traveling in high altitude environments?
Remember that the first three adaptations, short term, facultative and developmental, are all physiological/biological adaptations. They are actually changes to the body to help address the impact of the environmental stress. So when you talk about using a mask to adapt to high altitude as a short term adaptation, this doesn't qualify as it isn't a natural physiological response. This would qualify as a cultural response as it is using a tool to adapt. An example of a short term response is increased respiration and pulse rates to deliver the available oxygen out to the body at a higher rate.
Actually, by increasing red blood cells in the body, this reduces the need for a higher respiration rate. More red blood cells means the blood stream can carry more oxygen from the lungs out to the body/per unit of time. You don't need to breathe faster to keep resupplying the lungs. More of the available oxygen is transferred with each breath.
Good discussion on your developmental and cultural traits.
I don't disagree that one benefit of this approach would hopefully be to help people recognize that there is no biological basis for race, and more accurate knowledge would hopefully lead to better relations between different groups of people. But can you think of a more concrete way this information can be used? Can understanding the way high altitude impact the absorption of oxygen into the body have any medical implications? Can learning about new genes that address high altitude stress have genetic research implications?
I don't disagree with your points in the final section, but let's dig a little deeper into this. You are correct that race is just based upon superficial traits. Race is a social construct, subject to bias and interpretation, based upon external phenotypes. The key here is that in order to use one factor (i.e., the environment) to explain another (adaptations) you need to have a causal relationship between the two. We see that with the environment, which causes our adaptations to appear. Does race have that causal relationship as well? No, it doesn't. Race doesn't cause adaptations. In a sense, adaptations "cause" race, since they are used as the basis to define race. Without that causal relationship, race is useless in explaining human variation.