divination 

How a person adapts to new conditions. Natural human adaptations. Phenomena of the human body

The grandiose inventions of the human mind never cease to amaze, there is no limit to fantasy. But what nature has been creating for many centuries surpasses the most creative ideas and designs. Nature has created more than one and a half million species of living individuals, each of which is individual and unique in its forms, physiology, adaptability to life. Examples of organisms adapting to constantly changing living conditions on the planet are examples of the wisdom of the creator and a constant source of problems for biologists to solve.

Adaptation means adaptability or habituation. This is a process of gradual rebirth of the physiological, morphological or psychological functions of a creature in a changed environment. Both individual individuals and entire populations undergo changes.

A vivid example of direct and indirect adaptation is the survival of flora and fauna in the zone of increased radiation around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Direct adaptability is characteristic of those individuals who managed to survive, get used to it and begin to reproduce, some did not stand the test and died (indirect adaptation).

Since the conditions of existence on Earth are constantly changing, the processes of evolution and fitness in living nature are also a continuous process.

A recent example of adaptation is changing the habitat of a colony of green Mexican arating parrots. Recently, they have changed their habitual habitat and settled in the very mouth of the Masaya volcano, in an environment constantly saturated with high concentration sulfuric gas. Scientists have not yet given an explanation for this phenomenon.

Types of adaptation

A change in the whole form of an organism's existence is a functional adaptation. An example of adaptation, when changing conditions lead to mutual adaptation of living organisms to each other, is a correlative adaptation or co-adaptation.

Adaptation can be passive, when the functions or structure of the subject occur without his participation, or active, when he consciously changes his habits to match the environment (examples of people adapting to natural conditions or society). There are cases when the subject adapts the environment to his needs - this is an objective adaptation.

Biologists divide the types of adaptation according to three criteria:

  • Morphological.
  • Physiological.
  • behavioral or psychological.

Examples of adaptation of animals or plants in their pure form are rare, most cases of adaptation to new conditions occur in mixed forms.

Morphological adaptations: examples

Morphological changes are changes in the shape of the body, individual organs or the entire structure of a living organism that have occurred in the process of evolution.

The following are morphological adaptations, examples from the animal and plant world, which we take for granted:

  • The transformation of leaves into spines in cacti and other plants of arid regions.
  • Turtle shell.
  • Streamlined body shapes of inhabitants of reservoirs.

Physiological adaptations: examples

Physiological adaptation is a change in a number of chemical processes occurring inside the body.

  • The release of a strong scent by flowers to attract insects contributes to dusting.
  • The state of anabiosis, which the simplest organisms are able to enter, allows them to maintain their vital activity after many years. The oldest bacterium capable of reproduction is 250 years old.
  • The accumulation of subcutaneous fat, which is converted into water, in camels.

Behavioral (psychological) adaptations

Examples of human adaptation are more associated with the psychological factor. Behavioral characteristics are characteristic of flora and fauna. So, in the process of evolution, a change in the temperature regime causes some animals to hibernate, birds fly south to return in the spring, trees shed their leaves and slow down the movement of juices. The instinct to choose the most suitable partner for procreation drives the behavior of animals during the mating season. Some northern frogs and turtles freeze completely for the winter and thaw, reviving with the onset of heat.

Factors causing the need for change

Any adaptation processes are a response to environmental factors that lead to a change in the environment. Such factors are divided into biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic.

Biotic factors are the influence of living organisms on each other, when, for example, one species disappears, which serves as food for another.

Abiotic factors are changes in the surrounding inanimate nature when the climate, soil composition, water availability, and solar activity cycles change. Physiological adaptations, examples of the influence of abiotic factors - equatorial fish that can breathe both in water and on land. They are well adapted to the conditions when the drying up of rivers is a frequent occurrence.

Anthropogenic factors - the influence of human activity that changes the environment.

Habitat adaptations

  • illumination. In plants, these are separate groups that differ in the need for sunlight. Light-loving heliophytes live well in open spaces. In contrast, they are sciophytes: plants of forest thickets feel good in shaded places. Among the animals there are also individuals whose design is for an active lifestyle at night or underground.
  • Air temperature. On average, for all living things, including humans, the optimal temperature environment is considered to be the range from 0 to 50 ° C. However, life exists in almost all climatic regions of the Earth.

Opposite examples of adaptation to abnormal temperatures are described below.

Arctic fish do not freeze due to the production of a unique anti-freeze protein in the blood, which prevents the blood from freezing.

The simplest microorganisms are found in hydrothermal springs, the water temperature in which exceeds the boiling point.

Hydrophyte plants, that is, those that live in or near water, die even with a slight loss of moisture. Xerophytes, on the contrary, are adapted to live in arid regions, and die in high humidity. Among animals, nature has also worked on adapting to aquatic and non-aquatic environments.

Human adaptation

Man's ability to adapt is truly enormous. The secrets of human thinking are far from being fully revealed, and the secrets of the adaptive ability of people will remain a mysterious topic for scientists for a long time to come. The superiority of Homo sapiens over other living beings lies in the ability to consciously change their behavior to meet the requirements of the environment or, conversely, the world around them to suit their needs.

The flexibility of human behavior is manifested daily. If you give the task: "give examples of people's adaptation", the majority begins to recall exceptional cases of survival in these rare cases, and in new circumstances it is typical of a person every day. We try on a new environment at the moment of birth, in kindergarten, school, in a team, when moving to another country. It is this state of accepting new sensations by the body that is called stress. Stress is a psychological factor, but nevertheless, many physiological functions change under its influence. In the case when a person accepts a new environment as positive for himself, the new state becomes habitual, otherwise stress threatens to become protracted and lead to a number of serious diseases.

Human adaptation mechanisms

There are three types of human adaptation:

  • Physiological. The simplest examples are acclimatization and adaptability to changing time zones or the daily regime of work. In the process of evolution, various types of people were formed, depending on the territorial place of residence. Arctic, alpine, continental, desert, equatorial types differ significantly in physiological parameters.
  • Psychological adaptation. This is the ability of a person to find moments of understanding with people of different psychotypes, in a country with a different level of mentality. A reasonable person tends to change his established stereotypes under the influence of new information, special cases, stress.
  • Social adaptation. A type of addiction that is unique to humans.

All adaptive types are closely related to each other, as a rule, any change in habitual existence causes a need in a person for social and psychological adaptation. Under their influence, the mechanisms of physiological changes come into action, which also adapt to new conditions.

Such a mobilization of all body reactions is called an adaptation syndrome. New body reactions appear in response to sudden changes in the environment. At the first stage - anxiety - there is a change in physiological functions, changes in the work of metabolism and systems. Further, protective functions and organs (including the brain) are connected, they begin to turn on their protective functions and hidden capabilities. The third stage of adaptation depends on individual characteristics: a person either joins a new life and enters the usual course (in medicine, recovery occurs during this period), or the body does not accept stress, and the consequences are already taking a negative form.

Phenomena of the human body

In man, nature has a huge margin of safety, which is used in everyday life only to a small extent. It manifests itself in extreme situations and is perceived as a miracle. In fact, the miracle is inherent in ourselves. An example of adaptation: the ability of people to adapt to a normal life after the removal of a significant part of the internal organs.

Natural innate immunity throughout life can be strengthened by a number of factors or, conversely, weakened by an incorrect lifestyle. Unfortunately, addiction to bad habits is also the difference between a person and other living organisms.

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution

higher professional education

Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation

Siberian Institute of Management - branch of the RANEPA center for retraining specialists

Written control task

for distance learning students

on ecology

Completed:

student group 12461

Eryushkin O.N.

Novosibirsk 2014

  • Bibliography

1. Adaptogenic factors. Evolution and forms of adaptation

Human adaptation to new natural and industrial conditions can be briefly described as a set of socio-biological properties and characteristics necessary for the sustainable existence of an organism in a specific ecological habitat. Through production, nature is included in the system of social relations.

Physiological adaptation is a stable level of activity and interconnection of functional systems, organs and tissues, as well as control mechanisms. It ensures the normal functioning of the body and the labor activity of a person in new (including social) conditions of existence, the ability to reproduce healthy offspring.

Hans Selye called the factors, the impact of which leads to adaptation, stress factors Agadzhanyan N.A., Batotsyrenova T.E., Semenov Yu.N. Ecological, physiological and ethnic features of human adaptation to various environmental conditions. Vladimir: VSU Publishing House, 2009. Their other name is extreme factors. Extreme can be not only individual effects on the body, but also changed conditions of existence in general (for example, the movement of a person from the south to the Far North, etc.). In relation to a person, adaptogenic factors can be natural and social, associated with labor activity. solar gene pool adaptation

natural factors. In the course of evolutionary development, living organisms have adapted to the action of a wide range of natural stimuli. The action of natural factors that cause the development of adaptive mechanisms is always complex, so we can talk about the action of a group of factors of a particular nature. For example, in the course of evolution, all living organisms first of all adapted to the terrestrial conditions of existence: a certain barometric pressure and gravity, the level of cosmic and thermal radiation, a strictly defined gas composition of the surrounding atmosphere, etc.

social factors. In addition to the fact that the human body is subject to the same natural influences as the animal body, the social conditions of a person’s life, factors associated with his work activity, have generated specific factors to which it is necessary to adapt. Their number grows with the development of civilization. Thus, with the expansion of the habitat, conditions and influences that are completely new for the human body appear. For example, space flights bring new impact complexes. Among them is weightlessness - a state that is absolutely inadequate for any organism. Weightlessness is combined with hypokinesia, changes in the daily routine of life, etc.

There is a genotypic adaptation, as a result of which modern animal species were formed on the basis of heredity, mutations and natural selection. The complex of specific hereditary traits - the genotype - becomes the starting point for the next stage of adaptation, acquired during the life of each individual. This so-called individual or phenotypic adaptation is formed in the process of interaction of a particular organism with its environment and is provided by structural morphofunctional changes specific to this environment Krivoshchekov S.G., Leutin V.P., Divert V.E., Divert G.M. , Platonov Ya.G., Kovtun L.T., Komlyagina T.G., Mozolevskaya N.V. Systemic mechanisms of adaptation and compensation. // Bulletin of SO RAMS, 2004, No. 2..

In the process of individual adaptation, a person creates reserves of memory and skills, forms vectors of behavior as a result of formation in the body based on the selective expression of genes of a bank of memorable structural traces.

There are two fundamentally different forms of adaptation: genotypic and phenotypic Khasnulin V.I., Chukhrova M.G. Psychology of health. Tutorial. / Khasnulin V.I., Chukhrova M.G. - Novosibirsk: Alfa Vista LLC, 2010..

* Genotypic adaptation, as a result of which modern animal species were formed on the basis of heredity, mutations and natural selection.

* Phenotypic adaptation is formed in the process of interaction of a particular organism with its environment.

Thus, the most complicated process of adaptation is to a certain extent manageable. The methods of hardening the body developed by scientists serve to improve its adaptive capabilities. At the same time, it should be taken into account that adaptation to any inadequate factor is associated with a waste of not only energy, but also structural - genetically determined - resources of the body. In each case, the scientifically based determination of the strategy and tactics, as well as the quantity and quality (“dose”) of adaptation is as important an event as determining the dose of a potent pharmacological drug Khotuntsev, Yu.L. Ecology and ecological safety. M.: Ed. Center "Academy", 2004..

The life of a modern person is very mobile, and under normal natural conditions, his body continuously adapts to a whole range of natural-climatic and socio-production factors.

2. Factors affecting the gene pool

A.S. Serebrovsky, a Soviet geneticist, in 1928 gave the following definition: “The gene pool is a set of genes that have the properties of a given population or species as a whole” Petrov K.M. General ecology: interaction between society and nature: Textbook for universities: Himizdat, 2014..

There are the following factors that affect the gene pool

1. Mutation process

2. Isolation and genetic drift

3. Migration

4. Marriage structure: inbreeding, outbreeding

5. Natural selection

The mutation process (mutagenesis) is the process of formation of mutations - spasmodic inherited changes in the genetic material (the amount or structure of DNA).

The mutation process played a huge role in the evolution of life on earth. However, a further increase in the genetic variability of established species due to new mutations, as a rule, leads to adverse consequences. Mirkin B.M., Naumova L.G. Fundamentals of General Ecology: Textbook: University Book, 2012..

In the deviation of biological consequences, there are:

1. Somatic mutations occurring in cells, activating oncogenes (carcinogenesis), reducing the level of immune defense, reducing life expectancy.

2. Gametic mutations that occur in germ cells, manifest themselves in offspring, and increase the genetic load of the population. These mutations are a special category of genotoxic effects that are a violation of intrauterine development of the fetus (teratogenesis) and lead to congenital malformations.

Populations of small numbers, isolated geographically, are called isolates. In such an isolate, the predominant factor in population dynamics is gene drift - random fluctuations in gene frequencies in generations. Therefore, the inevitable fate of the isolate is the loss of genetic variability, the impoverishment of the gene pool, the obligatory companion of gene drift is a closely related marriage. By the 20th century, genetic drift is losing its significance as a result of urbanization, social progress, and increased mobility of the population Petrov K.M. Human Ecology and Culture: Textbook: Himizdat, 2014. Geographical isolates have been preserved in Russia - in the indigenous peoples of the European North and Siberia, the mountain villages of Dagestan and other republics of the North Caucasus, as well as the result of sociocultural isolation - for example, religious.

Migration increases not only the number, but also the hereditary diversity of the population into which the gene flow is directed. (Moscow is a city with a migrant gene pool that has almost completely replaced the gene pool of the indigenous population).

By increasing variability within a population that receives migrants, migration processes lead to a decrease in interpopulation diversity (crossbreeding).

Migration is often selective (selective) in nature - migrants differ in age composition (young men predominate), level of education, profession, nationality. Selective migration is emigration, leading to a decrease in population and loss of genetic diversity (emigration of Germans, Jews, Armenians, Greeks from Russia - “brain drain”).

The structure of marriages determines how genetic information is mixed in subsequent generations. Two alternative types of marriage structure are called inbreeding and outbreeding Khasnulin V.I., Chukhrova M.G. Psychology of health. Tutorial. / Khasnulin V.I., Chukhrova M.G. - Novosibirsk: Alfa Vista LLC, 2010..

In all modern cultures there is a ban on incest marriages. In isolated populations, over time, all individuals become relatives, and any marriage entered into in a given environment is consanguineous.

The genetic danger of inbreeding is that it increases the risk of developing hereditary diseases in the offspring, and at the population level, it increases the genetic load. Inbreeding increases the chance that the offspring will inherit two identical copies of the gene (one from each parent). If the copy is with a serious defect, then their double dose leads to the death of the organism, although parents with a defective copy can be healthy Sablin V.S., Saklava S.P. Human psychology - M .: Publishing house "Exam", 2004 ..

Natural selection cuts off that part of the genetic diversity that goes beyond the norm, thereby reducing the genetic load of the population (eliminating function), and also favors the creation of new adaptive combinations of genes (creative function).

Modern medicine creates an adaptive environment for many pathological genotypes that are excluded under more severe conditions by natural selection. Successes in maxillofacial surgery (elimination of the cleft palate and cleft lip), vaccination of children, the use of antibiotics alleviate immunity defects, cardiovascular surgery increases the survival rate of people with congenital heart defects, the fight against hemophilia, hereditary metabolic diseases - only correct the phenotype, i.e. e. eliminate the external manifestation of pathological signs, but do not affect the genotype, i.e. contribute to the transmission of genes of hereditary diseases to the next generation. This phenomenon was called the “dysgenic effect of medicine” by Stepanovskikh A.S. General ecology: Textbook for universities: Unity-Dana, 2012..

A modern alternative to natural selection is the development of methods for prenatal diagnosis of hereditary defects, which make it possible to reduce the frequency of abnormal genes in populations.

3. Man as a microcosmic object. Solar factors affecting human health

The internal processes in the human body are subject to time, rhythms, fluctuations and the law of the cosmos and the derivative of the cosmos - the nature of our planet.

The founder of heleobiology A.L. Chizhevsky at the beginning of the century convincingly showed that "man and microbe are not only earthly, but also cosmic beings, connected by their entire biology, their molecules, all parts of their bodies with the cosmos, with its rays, flows and fields."

The successors of A.L. Chizhevsky significantly advanced the understanding of man's dependence on cosmic collisions and related changes in weather-climatic and other geophysical factors in the biosphere. N.M. Voronin, following many experts, concludes that the physical elements of nature of cosmic, atmospheric and terrestrial origin, as astroclimatic and geographical factors, served as the basis for the emergence of life and, having formed a habitat, acquired vital importance. The main such factors include: cosmic, ultraviolet, light, thermal, radio wave radiation coming to Earth from the Sun and stars; temperature, humidity, movement, air pressure and other meteorological elements; chemical composition of the air environment, electric, magnetic and gravitational fields of the Earth; geographic latitudes, elevation above sea level, landscape zones; seasonal and daily periods.

First of all, of all the factors influencing life, it is necessary to single out the energy of the Sun, which in many respects plays a leading role in the existence of life on Earth. The sun in relation to the Earth is the most powerful generator of various forms of energy that affect the movement of the planets, air and sea currents, the circulation of substances in nature and life processes. Electromagnetic radiation (including visible light) comes from the Sun to the Earth in 8.3 minutes. The electromagnetic (wave) radiation of the Sun is constant if we consider the sum of this radiation with all possible wavelengths. The fact that it is warm, cold, etc. on the Earth in different seasons is due to the fact that different amounts of energy from the Sun come to the Earth's orbit, and to the fact that the Earth is exposed to this flow in different ways Fundamental and clinical physiology / Ed. A.G. Kamkin, A.A. Kamensky. - M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 2004 ..

Solar activity either increases or decreases with periods in relation to our planet: daily, twenty-seven-day (solar rotation time), seasonal, annual, five-six-year, eleven-year, eighty-ninety-year, centuries-old and others. Periods of maximum activity vary from seven to seventeen years, minimum - from nine to fourteen years. Solar activity affects the Earth through its electromagnetic radiation (including visible light and ultraviolet rays) and the solar wind. The electromagnetic radiation of the Sun is classified according to the wavelength Human ecology. Social physiology Textbook /V.S. Soloviev [and others]. - Tyumen, Publishing House of Tyumen State University, 2007. The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, short radio waves, UHF, microwaves, infrared rays, visible light, near ultraviolet, far ultraviolet, long-wave X-rays, short-wave X-rays, gamma radiation.

It is known that each part of the spectrum of solar radiation has its own vital importance and has a direct impact on human health.

Bibliography

1. Agadzhanyan N.A., Batotsyrenova T.E., Semenov Yu.N. Ecological, physiological and ethnic features of human adaptation to various environmental conditions. Vladimir: VSU Publishing House, 2009

2. Krivoshchekov S.G., Leutin V.P., Divert V.E., Divert G.M., Platonov Ya.G., Kovtun L.T., Komlyagina T.G., Mozolevskaya N.V. Systemic mechanisms of adaptation and compensation. // Bulletin of SO RAMS, 2004, No. 2.

3. Khasnulin V.I., Chukhrova M.G. Psychology of health. Tutorial. / Khasnulin V.I., Chukhrova M.G. - Novosibirsk: Alfa Vista LLC, 2010.

4. Khotuntsev, Yu.L. Ecology and ecological safety. M.: Ed. Center "Academy", 2004.

5. Petrov K.M. General ecology: interaction between society and nature: Textbook for universities: Himizdat, 2014.

6. Mirkin B.M., Naumova L.G. Fundamentals of General Ecology: Textbook: University Book, 2012.

7. Petrov K.M. Human Ecology and Culture: Textbook: Himizdat, 2014

8. Sablin V.S., Saklava S.P. Human psychology - M .: Publishing house "Exam", 2004.

9. Stepanovskikh A.S. General Ecology: Textbook for High Schools: Unity-Dana, 2012.

10. Fundamental and clinical physiology / Ed. A.G. Kamkin, A.A. Kamensky. - M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2004.

11. Human ecology. Social physiology Textbook /V.S. Soloviev [and others]. -Tyumen, Publishing House of Tyumen State University, 2007.

Hosted on Allbest.ru

Similar Documents

    Negative environmental factors, their impact on the human body. Assessment of the degree of their impact on health, the nature of changes in the functional state of the body, the possibility of developing individual disorders. The influence of the environment on the human gene pool.

    abstract, added 10/22/2011

    Ecology and human health. Chemical pollution of the environment and human health. Biological pollution and human diseases. The influence of sounds on a person. Weather and human well-being. Nutrition and human health. Landscape as a health factor. Adaptations

    abstract, added 02/06/2005

    Demographic situation and life expectancy, factors affecting human health. A brief description of the environmental situation in Russia and the incidence of the population, socio-cultural factors, malnutrition and physical activity.

    abstract, added 05/15/2010

    Human habitat. Social factors, factors of the human social environment. Decreasing population in rich industrial states. The paradox of urbanization. Sociogenic and natural environmental factors of negative impact on humans.

    tutorial, added 01/10/2009

    Levels of information circulation within the anthropoecosystem. Environmentally hazardous substances. Levels of human ecology research. Safety in human ecology. The state of the air. radiation environment. Factors affecting the health of citizens.

    lecture, added 03/25/2009

    The study of the laws of limiting factors and the minimum J. Liebig. The study of complex situations in the relationship between organisms and their environment. Genetic systems as regulators of processes of adaptation and speciation (to the system theory of microevolution).

    term paper, added 11/03/2015

    Heavy metals as a group of chemical elements with the properties of metals and a significant atomic weight or density, the degree of their prevalence in the environment. Factors affecting the concentration of these substances in the air, the impact on humans.

    report, added 20.09.2011

    Classification and forms of environmental pollution. The state of health of the population, a decrease in its healthy number. Factors affecting health and life expectancy. Medical and sanitary provision of human security. Solving environmental problems.

    abstract, added 12/10/2011

    Chemical substances that are toxic to humans: lead; Mercury; cadmium; dioxins; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; volatile organic compounds. Factors that determine human health. The impact of air pollution on human health.

    term paper, added 03/29/2010

    Biological and social aspects of population adaptation to living conditions. Human adaptation to the effects of environmental factors. Adaptation to the professional activity of a doctor as a kind of social adaptation of an individual to living conditions.

LECTURE 6

TOPIC: Human adaptation to environmental conditions

PLAN

1. The concept of human adaptation and acclimatization.

2. General laws of the adaptive process. adaptation mechanisms.

3. Conditions affecting adaptation.

4. Types of adaptations.

5. Influence of the natural environment on the morphological and physiological variability of the human body.

1. The concept of human adaptation and acclimatization

Under adaptation understand all types of innate and acquired adaptive activity, which are provided by certain physiological reactions that occur at the cellular, organ, system and organism levels.

In biology adaptation process- this is an adaptation of the structure and functions of the body to the conditions of existence. In the process of adaptation, signs and properties are formed that are most beneficial for living beings (or an entire population) and due to which the organism acquires the ability to exist in a particular habitat.

Adaptation is closely related to the evolution of organisms and is one of the essential factors of acclimatization. In economic practice, adaptation is more often associated with the resettlement of animal and plant organisms, with their transfer to other areas that go beyond the range of a given species. Stably acclimatized organisms are those that easily adapt to changed conditions, reproduce and give viable offspring in a new habitat.

Human adaptation 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 is a two-way process - a person not only adapts to a new ecological environment, but also adapts this environment to his needs and requirements, creates a life support system (housing, clothing, transport, infrastructure, food, etc.

Acclimatization- adaptation of a person (his entire body or individual systems and organs) to the new conditions of existence in which he ended up as a result of moving to a new place of residence. Acclimatization differs from adaptation in that the acquired new properties of the organism are not fixed genetically and in the event of a return to a former place of residence or moving to other conditions, they may be lost.

2. General laws of the adaptive process. Adaptation mechanisms

The phase course of adaptation reactions was first discovered by G. Selye (1938).

The first phase of adaptation is emergency develops at the very beginning of the action of both physiological and pathogenic factors. The first contact of the body with changed conditions or individual factors causes an orienting reaction, which can turn into generalized excitation in parallel. Reactions are uneconomical and often exceed the level required for given conditions. The number of changed indicators in the activities of various systems is unreasonably large. The control of functions by the nervous system and humoral factors is not sufficiently synchronized, the entire phase as a whole is of a exploratory nature and is presented as an attempt to adapt to a new factor or to new conditions, mainly due to organ and systemic mechanisms.

The emergency phase of adaptation mainly proceeds against the background of increased emotionality (often negative modality). Consequently, the mechanisms of this phase also include all the elements of the central nervous system, which provide precisely emotional shifts in the body. It can be expressed in different ways, depending not only on the individual characteristics of the organism, but also on the strength of irritating factors. Accordingly, it can be accompanied by a strongly or weakly expressed emotional component, on which, in turn, the mobilization of vegetative mechanisms depends.

The second phase (transitional) - persistent adaptation characterized by the fact that new coordination relationships are formed: enhanced efferent synthesis leads to the implementation of purposeful defensive reactions. The hormonal background changes due to the inclusion of the pituitary-adrenal system, the hormones of the adrenal cortex - "hormones of adaptation" - enhance their action. During this phase, the body's adaptive reactions gradually switch to a deeper tissue level. The transitional phase of persistent adaptation takes place only if the adaptogenic factor has sufficient intensity and duration of action. If it acts for a short time, then the emergency phase stops and the adaptation process is not formed. If the adaptogenic factor acts for a long time or repeatedly intermittently, this creates sufficient prerequisites for the formation of so-called "structural traces". The effects of factors are summarized. Metabolic changes deepen and increase, and the emergency phase of adaptation turns into a transitional, and then into a phase of stable adaptation.

Since the phase of persistent adaptation is associated with a constant tension of control mechanisms, restructuring of nervous and humoral relationships, and the formation of new functional systems, these processes can be depleted in certain cases. If we take into account that hormonal mechanisms play an important role in the development of adaptive processes, it becomes clear that they are the most depleted link.

Depletion of controlled mechanisms, on the one hand, and cellular mechanisms associated with increased energy costs, on the other hand, leads to maladjustment. The symptoms of this condition are functional changes in the activity of the body, reminiscent of those shifts that are observed in the phase of acute adaptation.

Auxiliary systems - respiration, blood circulation - come into a state of increased activity again, energy is wasted uneconomically. However, coordination between systems that provides a state adequate to the requirements of the external environment is carried out incompletely, which can lead to death.

Disadaptation occurs most often in cases where the action of factors that are the main stimulators of active changes in the body is intensified, and this becomes incompatible with life.

The basis of the third phase–sustainable adaptation or resistance is a change in the hormonal background due to the inclusion of the pituitary-adrenal system. Glucocorticoids and biologically active substances secreted in tissues mobilize structures, as a result of which tissues receive increased energy, plastic and protective support. It is actually an adaptation - an adaptation and is characterized by a new level of activity of tissue cellular membrane elements, rebuilt due to the temporary activation of auxiliary systems, which at the same time can function almost in the original mode, while tissue processes are activated, providing homeostasis, adequate to the new conditions of existence.

The main features of this phase are:

1) mobilization of energy resources;

2) increased synthesis of structural and enzymatic proteins;

3) mobilization of immune systems.

In the third phase, the body acquires nonspecific and specific resistance - the resistance of the body.

Control mechanisms during the third phase are coordinated. Their manifestations are kept to a minimum. However, in general, this phase also requires intense control, which makes it impossible for it to continue indefinitely. Despite the cost-effectiveness - turning off "extra" reactions, and, consequently, excessive energy consumption, switching the body's reactivity to a new level is not given to the body for nothing, but proceeds at a certain voltage of the control systems. This tension is commonly referred to as the "price of adaptation". Any activity in an organism adaptable in a given situation costs it much more than under normal conditions (it requires, for example, during physical exertion in mountain conditions, 25% more energy costs than normal).

It is impossible to consider this phase as something absolutely stable. During the life of an organism that is in the phase of stable adaptation, deviations (decrease in stability) and readaptation (restoration of stability) are possible. These fluctuations are associated both with the functional state of the body and with the action of various side factors.

3. Conditions affecting adaptation

G. Selye, who approached the problem of adaptation from new original positions, named the factors whose impact leads to adaptation, stressors. Their other name is extreme factors. Extreme can be not only individual effects on the body, but also changed conditions of existence as a whole, for example, the movement of a person from the south to the Far North, etc.). In relation to a person, adaptogenic factors can be natural and social, associated with labor activity.

natural factors. In the course of evolutionary development, living organisms have adapted to the action of a wide range of natural stimuli.

The action of factors causing the development of adaptive mechanisms is always complex, so we can talk about the action of a group of factors of a particular nature. So, for example, all living organisms in the course of evolution first of all adapted to the terrestrial conditions of existence: a certain barometric pressure and gravity, the level of cosmic and thermal radiation, a strictly defined gas composition of the surrounding atmosphere, etc.

It should be noted that natural factors act both on the animal body and on the human body. In both cases, these factors lead to a difference in the adapted mechanisms of a physiological nature. However, a person helps himself to adapt to the conditions of existence, using, in addition to his physiological reactions, also various protective means that civilization has given him: clothes, houses, etc. This frees the body from the load on some adaptive systems and has negative sides for the body : reduces the ability to adapt to natural factors. For example, to the cold.

social factors. In addition to the fact that the human body is mobile, the same natural influences as animal organisms, the social conditions of human life, factors. Associated with his work activity, gave rise to specific factors to which it is necessary to adapt. Their number grows with the development of civilization.

Thus, with the expansion of the habitat, conditions and influences that are completely new for the human body appear. For example, space flights bring new sets of influences. Among them is weightlessness - a state that is absolutely inadequate for any organism. Weightlessness is combined with hypodynamia, changes in the daily regime of life, etc.

People penetrating into the bowels of the Earth or making deep-sea dives are exposed to unusually high pressure, humidity, and breathe air with a high oxygen content.

Working in hot shops or cold climates creates factors that require an extended range of adaptation to extreme temperatures. Performing his official duties, a person is forced to adapt to noise, changes in illumination.

Pollution of the environment, the inclusion in food of a large number of synthetic products, alcoholic beverages, drug abuse, smoking - all this is an additional burden on the homeostatic systems of the body of a modern person.

In the course of the development of society, the production activity of people also changes. Physical labor is largely replaced by the work of machines and mechanisms. The person becomes the operator at the control panel. This relieves physical stress, but at the same time, new factors come to the fore, such as physical inactivity, stress, which adversely affect all body systems.

Another side of the social influences of mechanized labor is the growth of neuropsychic tension, which has replaced the physical one. It is associated with the increased speed of production processes, as well as with increased demands on the attention and concentration of a person.

4. Types of adaptations

The mechanisms of human adaptation are very different, therefore, in relation to human communities, there are: 1) biological, 2) social and 3) ethnic (as a special version of social) adaptation.

Human biological adaptation- an evolutionary adaptation of the human body to environmental conditions, expressed in a change in the external and internal features of an organ, function or the whole organism to changing environmental conditions. In the process of adapting the body to new conditions, two processes are distinguished - phenotypic or individual adaptation, which is more correctly called acclimatization and genotypic adaptation carried out by natural selection of traits useful for survival. With phenotypic adaptation, the body directly reacts to the new environment, which is expressed in phenotypic shifts, compensatory physiological changes that help the body maintain balance with the environment under new conditions. Upon transition to the previous conditions, the previous state of the phenotype is also restored, compensatory physiological changes disappear. With genotypic adaptation, deep morphological and physiological changes occur in the body, which are inherited and fixed in the genotype as new hereditary characteristics of populations, ethnic groups and races.

In the process of individual adaptation, a person creates reserves of memory and skills, forms vectors of behavior as a result of formation in the body based on the selective expression of genes of a bank of memorable structural traces.

Adaptive memory structural traces are of great biological importance. They protect a person from upcoming meetings with inadequate and dangerous environmental factors. The genetic program of the organism does not provide for a pre-formed adaptation, but the possibility of effective purposeful implementation of vitally necessary adaptive reactions under the influence of the environment. This provides an economical, environment-directed expenditure of energy and structural resources of the body, and also contributes to the formation of the phenotype. It should be considered advantageous for the conservation of the species that the results of phenotypic adaptation are not inherited.

Each new generation adapts anew to a wide range of sometimes completely new factors that require the development of new specialized responses.

Social adaptation- the process of personality formation, individual training and assimilation by him of values, norms, attitudes, patterns of behavior inherent in a given society, social community, group. Social adaptation is carried out both in the course of a targeted impact on a person in the education system, and under the influence of a wide range of other influencing factors (family and extra-family communication, art, the media, etc.). The expansion and deepening of the social adaptation of the individual occurs in three main areas: activity, communication, self-awareness. In the sphere of activity, both the expansion of the types of the latter with which a person is associated, and the orientation in the system of each type of activity, i.e. highlighting the main thing in it, understanding it, etc. In the field of communication, there is an expansion of a person’s circle of communication, enrichment of its content, deepening of knowledge of other people, development of communication skills. In the sphere of self-awareness, the formation of the image of one's own "I" as an active subject of activity, understanding one's social belonging, social role, the formation of self-esteem, etc. childhood and the period of study), labor (conditional boundaries - the period of maturity of a person, his active participation in work) and post-labor, which refers to the period of a person's life, coinciding, as a rule, with retirement age.

The impact of each of these institutions is determined by the system of social relations that exist in society. The presence of natural influences makes the problem of “effects of social adaptation” relevant in practical terms, i.e. the nature and depth of this process, its effectiveness, in particular, overcoming negative influences that lead to deviant behavior, antisocial influences.

Ethnic adaptation- adaptation of ethnic groups (communities) to the natural and socio-cultural environment of their habitats. The study of this process and the problems associated with it is mainly the task of ethnic ecology. In the socio-cultural adaptation of ethnic groups, there is a lot of peculiarity, due to linguistic, cultural, political, economic and other parameters of the environment. This is most clearly manifested in the ethnic adaptation of immigrant groups in their countries of settlement, for example, in the USA, Canada, Argentina, etc. At present, problems have arisen in the readaptation of representatives of a single ethnic group among an ethnically homogeneous population, but with a different culture. Such, for example, are Germans from the former USSR moving to live in Germany, or Russians from Central Asia and Kazakhstan returning to Russia. At the same time, it is customary to single out adaptation associated with employment (getting a job), as well as linguistic and cultural adaptation, called "acculturation".

The normal course of ethnic adaptation can be greatly complicated and delayed by the manifestation of nationalism and racism in the form of discrimination, segregation, and so on. A sharp change in the habitat can lead to maladjustment.

5. Influence of the natural environment on the morphophysiological variability of the human body

Despite the “neutralization” or mitigation of the influence of many environmental factors on the body, the connection between a person and the environment still exists, that is, the morphological and functional characteristics that formed in the initial period of the existence of the human race have still been preserved.

The effect of environmental factors is most clearly manifested on the human body in the morphological and functional differences of residents of different climatic and geographical zones: mass, body surface area, chest structure, body proportions. Behind the outer side are hidden no less pronounced differences in the structure of proteins, isoenzymes, tissues, and the genetic apparatus of cells. Features of the structure of the body, the flow of energy processes are determined mainly by the temperature regime of the environment, nutrition; mineral exchange - geochemical situation. This is especially pronounced among the indigenous inhabitants of the North (Yakuts, Chukchi, Eskimos), the main metabolism is increased by 13–16% compared to visitors. A high level of fats in food, their increased content in blood serum with a relatively high ability to utilize are one of the conditions that ensure an increase in energy metabolism in a cold climate. An increase in heat production is one of the main adaptive reactions to cold.

The Eskimos living on the islands of Hudson's Bay, in comparison with Americans of European origin, have a greater filling of tissues with blood and a higher percentage of adipose tissue in the body, that is, higher thermal insulation properties of tissues.

They have an increase in homeopoiesis and a weakening of the ability of blood vessels to constrict. Blood pressure in most Arctic populations is lower than in temperate populations. Differences are noted in the body structure and the chest index and weight-to-height ratio are increased, mesomorphic features in body proportions are enhanced, the percentage of individuals with a muscular body type is higher.

A similar morphofunctional complex, characterized by an increase in the size of the chest, heat production, blood flow velocity and hematopoietic activity, is observed in high mountains in conditions of oxygen deficiency and a decrease in ambient temperature. Indigenous inhabitants of the highlands have higher pulmonary ventilation, oxygen capacity of the blood, hemoglobin and myoglobin levels, peripheral blood flow, the number and size of capillaries, and lower blood pressure.

The population of tropical latitudes is characterized by an elongation of the body shape and an increase in the relative surface of evaporation, an increase in the number of sweat glands, and, consequently, the intensity of sweating. Specific regulation of water-salt metabolism, increased blood pressure, decreased metabolic rate, achieved by reducing body weight, reducing the synthesis of endogenous fats and reducing the concentration of ATP.

Features of the tropical morphofunctional complex are also characteristic of the population of tropical deserts.

In the indigenous inhabitants of the continental zone of Siberia, the increase in heat production is combined with an increase in the thickness of the fat layer. Among them, the percentage of people with a picnic physique with brachymorphic body proportions is increased.

The population of the temperate zone, in many morphological and physiological characteristics, occupies an intermediate position between the arctic and tropical groups.

All these features characterize the specifics of the features inherent in specific ecological niches.

According to modern ideas, both the external environment and heredity take an equal part in the formation of the constitution. The main features of the constitution are hereditarily determined - the longitudinal dimensions of the body and the dominant type of metabolism, the latter being inherited only if two or three generations of the family constantly lived in the same area. Combinations of the main features make it possible to distinguish three or four basic constitutional types. A secondary feature of constitutions (transverse dimensions) is determined by the conditions of a person's life, being realized in the features of his personality. It is most closely related to the sex, age, profession of the individual, as well as the influence of the environment.

Questions for conversation

1. Formulate the concept of human adaptation and acclimatization.

2. What are the general patterns of the adaptive process?

3. Describe the mechanisms of adaptation.

4. What types of adaptations do you know?

5. Significance and mechanism of human biological adaptation.

6. What is the essence of human social adaptation?

7. What causes the ethnic adaptation of a person?

When a person is born, he does not yet possess the knowledge, skills and abilities that are ideal for performing all the actions that lead to maintaining health, self-sufficiency, self-service, etc. A person has to learn everything. This training can be called one of the forms of human adaptation, which is a mandatory process in any circumstances. The article discusses in detail this concept, types and factors of adaptation.

concept

Adaptation is understood as the adaptation of a person to the conditions and circumstances of the surrounding world. The goal of any adaptation is to achieve harmony in the interaction between a person and other people, the surrounding world. This concept is used almost all life, since any change in the familiar environment and getting into new conditions lead to the need for adaptation.

A person adapts to the surrounding world and people, while the surrounding people are also forced to adapt to a person. This mechanism is bilateral. Physiological, personal characteristics, genetic and behavioral factors take part in this.

The concept of adaptation is considered from two sides:

  1. A person gets used to the external circumstances in which he lives.
  2. A person self-regulates and balances against the background of external factors affecting him.

Adaptation always occurs at three levels:

  1. Physiological.
  2. Psychological.
  3. Social.

These levels, both among themselves and within each other, are subject to mutual influence.

In the process of adaptation, a significant role is played by factors that are barriers to achieving the goal. If a person goes through a situation without significant obstacles, then we are talking about conforming behavior. If there were obstacles through which a person passed or not, we are talking about the lack of effective adaptation. A person often shows a defensive reaction to situations when he does not achieve what he wants. Here, the ability of a person to adequately respond to the situation, evaluate, analyze and predict, plan their actions, which can help in achieving harmony, adaptation and purpose, become important.

The defense mechanisms that a person resorts to in a situation of non-adaptation are:

  • Denial - ignoring unpleasant or traumatic information.
  • Regression is a manifestation of infantile behavior.
  • The formation of a reaction is a change from positive to negative, and vice versa.
  • Repression - erasing from the memory of those episodes that cause pain.
  • Suppression is the intentional ignoring and forgetting of unpleasant memories.
  • Projection is the attribution to the world or people of qualities that a person himself possesses.
  • Identification - attributing to oneself the qualities of another person or an unreal character.
  • Rationalization is an attempt to interpret the situation in such a way that it would be the least traumatic for a person.
  • Humor is a way to reduce emotional tension.
  • Sublimation is the transformation of instinctive reactions into socially acceptable forms.

All these are ways of adaptation that people often use in everyday life.

Kinds

The site of psychotherapeutic help site identifies 4 types of adaptation:

  1. Biological - the process when the human body evolves in order to maximize adaptation to the surrounding world. Health is considered a criterion that indicates the adaptation of the body to current conditions. If adaptation is delayed, then the body becomes ill.
  2. Ethnic - the process of adaptation of a group of people to new social, weather, local conditions. The problem may be the racist attitude of the local population towards new faces.
  3. Social - the process of adaptation to the social environment in which he resides. This includes relationships with other people, work activity, culture, etc. A person can change passively, that is, not change anything in himself and hope for fate that everything will work out by itself, or he can actively act, which is the most effective way. In case of non-adaptation, a person may encounter both an unfriendly attitude, tension, and an unwillingness to do anything.
  4. Psychological - manifested in all types of adaptation. A person is forced to adapt emotionally and mentally to any conditions in order to be able to survive and establish harmony within himself.

A person easily adapts when he is personally ready for any changes and difficulties that he will inevitably face if he does not know something, does not know how, ignores it. Adequate reaction to ongoing changes, readiness to analyze and soberly assess the situation, as well as change the model of one's behavior in new conditions to the most conformal allow a person to adapt to any conditions.

If a person is not able to satisfy personal needs in the existing conditions (disadaptation), then he develops anxiety, which often provokes fear and anxiety. Here, a person behaves differently: from an adequate assessment of the situation and changing his behavior to the inclusion of protective mechanisms and attempts to isolate himself from unsuitable conditions.

If a person reacts inadequately to the situation, misinterprets it, or is affected by factors of insurmountable complexity, then an unacceptable form of behavior may form. She happens:

  • Deviant - satisfaction of personal needs by actions unacceptable to society. The actions are:
  1. Non-conformist - conflicts.
  2. Innovative - new ways of solving situations.
  • Pathological - actions that form neurotic and psychotic syndromes. Disadaptation is distinguished here - a form of behavior that does not correspond to generally accepted norms, and also leads to conflicts with people or within oneself.

Deviant behavior is often seen in adolescence, when a person wants to dictate his own behavior. Often there are such types of deviant behavior:

  1. Negative deviation - lies, laziness, impudent and rude behavior, a tendency to physical violence, aggressiveness, abuse of drugs, alcohol and nicotine substances.
  2. Positive deviation - the desire to find new models and solutions to situations, experimentation, creativity.

Factors

Adaptation factors are understood as external conditions to which a person is forced to adapt. These include such factors:

  • Natural - weather and climatic conditions, territorial location, the occurrence of cataclysms.
  • Material objects are objects of the external world that a person is forced to be able to use. For example, clothes, trees, land, cars, etc.
  • Social is the activity and relationships between people.
  • Man-made - factors that are a side effect of human activities: landfills, garbage, air pollution, etc.

Each person is individual in their pace of adaptation. It is easy for someone to adapt to new conditions, so such people often travel. Someone hard to endure changes, therefore, almost forever retains the habitat in which it is located.

Psychologists note that the adaptability of a person is influenced by such factors:

  1. Subjective, which are:
  • Demographics - age, gender.
  • Psychophysiological.
  1. Medium include:
  • Circumstances and conditions of life.
  • Circumstances of the social environment.
  • Mode and nature of activity.

It is difficult to talk about what favors rapid adaptation. For example, it is believed that young people manage to easily adapt to new conditions. Although older people prefer to live in familiar conditions, they have tremendous experience that helps them find a "common language" with the environment much faster than younger people.

The role is also played by emotions, knowledge of a person, his readiness for action and motivation. Education is one of the ways of adaptation, in which a person learns to live in new conditions. A person acquires knowledge and develops skills so that they help him in new circumstances. The more they correspond to reality, the faster a person adapts.

Outcome

Human adaptation is one of the important mechanisms that allow a living organism to live in the conditions in which it lives. Vivid examples of a negative outcome are animals that die as a species if they are not adapted to new climatic conditions. Dinosaurs died out because their bodies were not adapted to the changed conditions. So it is with a person: if he does not adapt at all levels, then he begins to die.

Mental disorders can be called a kind of maladjustment of a person. The psyche has found the most ideal option for adaptation through the formation of a disease. As long as a person lives, he remains sick. Life expectancy with maladaptation is significantly reduced.

How long do people live who have adapted to the environment? It all depends on the period of functionality of their body, as well as the ability to avoid situations where they can become maladaptive.

The more a person is ready for the difficulties and changes in his life, the more favorable the forecast of his life becomes. It should be understood that absolutely all people come into the material world without being adapted to it. The need to learn to walk on two legs and to speak human language are among the first necessities that force adaptation.

For almost a lifetime, a person will be forced to adapt. This is no longer due to natural, but to social factors. Changes in the environment, friends, politics and economy, living conditions make it necessary to find new ways to maintain harmony at the physiological and psychological level. This is a natural necessity for every living being, if he does not want to become an "outcast" of society and an object that should be destroyed.

Modern man - Homo Sapiens ("reasonable man") as a new biological species appeared on the surface relatively recently (see the article ""). Anthropologists continue to argue whether this happened in one place (and which one?), or in several places; but it is obvious that there were very few such places, and all of them were located in areas with a warm climate (this is evidenced by the names of the places where the remains of the most ancient people were found: the island of Java, Southeast China, East Africa, the Mediterranean and others). It is clear that, for example, a person could not appear on a narrow strip of land between the sea and a glacier in Greenland - he could only later move there, adapting to these completely different local conditions.

Here is how the medical geographer B.B. Prokhorov, the impact of natural conditions on the settlement of the territory: The nature of the settlement of people on the surface of the Earth from the first steps in the formation of human society was limited by environmental factors. The territory where people settled (clan or community) had to have sufficient food supplies, have a convenient strategic position, be characterized by a mild climate, have suitable conditions for building dwellings, and the like. As such free places remained less and less, violent clashes broke out because of them, the defeated were forced to settle in areas less favorable for their usual way of life.

In some periods, mass migrations of the population were associated with sharp fluctuations in climate. Under the influence of historical and natural disasters, the expanses of the tundra, northern taiga, high mountains, and a number of other ecological niches were mastered, for adaptation in which people “paid” with the health and lives of many of their relatives who died from generation to generation, before the newcomer contingents fully “fit in” » into new living conditions and achieved amazing perfection of adaptation to extreme conditions.

Human adaptation

Adaptation (from the Latin "adaptare" - to adapt) a person to the natural environment can occur in two ways: biological and extrabiological.

Biological adaptation is manifested in a change in the human body itself: body structure, skin color, hairline, and so on.

But a much larger role is played by non-biological adaptation - what is often called culture in the broad sense of the word. Culture - in this case, is understood as everything that is created by mankind: technology, housing, science, state, family, art, religion and much more. Some of the creations of man help isolate themselves, protect themselves from the environment: this is primarily housing and clothing. Others help change the environment, such as creating irrigation systems and farming in the desert zone or draining part of the sea (as in the Netherlands), and so on.

But in fact, the process of adaptation is more complicated: a person not only changes the environment, but at the same time changes himself; he adapts his behavior to the requirements of this (already changed by him!) environment. For example, for a nomadic pastoralist, his wagon and horse are part of his culture, ways of adapting to the environment, and annual seasonal migrations (from summer to winter pastures) are part of the traditional way of life (and also