MEDICAL BIOLOGY, HUMAN ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY - Ya.I. Fedoniuk 2010

BIOLOGY

CHAPTER 2. BIOCOENOTIC LEVEL OF LIFE ORGANIZATION AND THE PLACE OF HUMAN IN IT

2.1. BASICS OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

Social and biological aspects of population adaptation to environmental conditions

Adaptations refer to the adjustments of organisms to specific environmental conditions, ensuring their survival and reproduction within those settings. Adaptations are also understood as The process of developing fitness for specific environmental conditions. Adaptations to certain environments develop on The basis of a hereditary* program under the control of natural Selection and are always relative in nature. All organisms possess adaptive capacities to change within the Structure/21.html">Limits of the reaction norm while maintaining their Homeostasis.

Initially, prehistoric humans continued to adapt to external conditions by altering their morphophysiological Functions. Subsequently, biological adaptation was superseded by social adaptation, which is fundamentally based on labor. Social adaptation is an active human attitude toward the environment of existence. While animals adapt their organisms to the environment, humans use labor to adapt the environment to their existence. Consequently, the level and range of adaptation are determined by the level of industrial development.

The human environment encompasses natural and social components, specifically the natural and artificial environments. Elements of the natural and artificial environments intertwine and interact. The complex of these elements exhibits distinct features across various physiographic and economic Regions of the planet. According to the World Health Organization Constitution (1968), the state of public health is accepted as the integral criterion of environmental quality regarding human habitability. Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, rather than merely the absence of disease and infirmity.

Elements of the artificial environment predominate in human surroundings. By creating an artificial environment around themselves, humans—unlike other species limited to specific geographic ranges—have been able to populate the entire planet. The natural environment is incorporated into human surroundings in a more or less humanized form, adapted to human needs. Virtually the entire environment inhabited by human populations consists of artificial, human-made ecosystems known as anthropogenic ecosystems, or anthropobiogeocenoses. The most significant anthropogenic ecosystems include cities, rural settlements, and transport networks.

Factors of both natural and artificial environments continuously impact humans. Adaptations develop in response to factors from both natural and artificial environments; thus, owing to the biosocial nature of humans, they are both biological and social in character. Currently, social mechanisms of adaptation play a predominant role in enabling humans to master new habitats and create better conditions in existing ones. These mechanisms are supported by Sanitary and hygienic measures, such as the construction of housing and other facilities, the design of appropriate clothing, the Organization of Nutrition and Water supply, and rational labor and rest regimes. Given that humans possess a social essence and represent distinct individuals, social adaptations are complemented by psychological adaptations. Alongside survival and reproduction, individual and population human adaptations ensure the performance of social functions, the foremost of which is socially useful and highly productive labor.