The grand inventions of the human mind do not cease to amaze; fantasy has no limit. But what nature has created 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, and fitness for life. Examples of adaptation of organisms to constantly changing living conditions on the planet are examples of the creator’s wisdom and a constant source of problems for biologists to solve.
What is adaptation?
Adaptation means fitness or addiction. This is a process of gradual degeneration of the physiological, morphological or psychological functions of a creature in a changing environment. Both individual individuals and entire populations undergo changes.
A striking example of the adaptation of direct and indirect is the survival of the plant and animal world in the zone of increased radiation around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Immediate adaptability is characteristic of those individuals who managed to survive, get used to and begin to breed, some did not pass 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 fresh example of adaptation is the change in the habitat of a colony of green Mexican parrots. Recently, they changed their habitat and settled in the vent of the Masaya volcano, in an environment constantly saturated with high concentration of sulfur gas. Scientists have not yet given an explanation for this phenomenon.
Types of adaptation
A change in the whole form of the organism’s existence is a functional adaptation. An example of adaptation, when a change in conditions leads to the 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 fit the environment (examples of people's adaptation to natural conditions or society). There are times 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 getting used to new conditions occur in mixed species.
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 during evolution.
The following are morphological adaptations, examples from the animal and plant world, which we take for granted:
- The degeneration of leaves in thorns in cacti and other plants of arid regions.
- Tortoise shell.
- Streamlined body shapes of residents of water bodies.
Physiological adaptations: examples
A physiological device is a change in a number of chemical processes that occur inside the body.
- Emitting a strong odor to attract insects promotes dusting.
- The state of suspended animation, in which the simplest organisms are able to enter, allows them to maintain vital activity after many years. The oldest breeding bacterium 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 to fly south to return in the spring, trees to dump foliage and slow down the movement of juices. The instinct of choosing the most suitable partner for procreation drives the behavior of animals in the mating season. Some northern frogs and turtles completely freeze for the winter and thaw, come to life with the onset of heat.
Drivers for Change
Any adaptation processes are a response to environmental factors that lead to environmental change. 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 that serves as food for another disappears.
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 are equatorial fish, which can breathe both in water and on land. They are well adapted to conditions when the drying up of rivers is a frequent occurrence.
Anthropogenic factors - the influence of human activity, which changes the environment.
Habitat adaptations
- Illumination In plants, these are separate groups that differ in the need for sunlight. In open spaces, light-loving heliophytes live well. In contrast, sciophytes: thickets, feel good in shaded areas. Among animals there are also individuals whose physiological adaptation is designed for an active lifestyle at night or underground.
- Air temperature. On average, for all living things, including humans, the optimal temperature range is considered to be 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 antifreeze protein in the blood, which prevents the blood from freezing.
The simplest microorganisms were found in hydrothermal springs, the water temperature in which exceeds a 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 to adapt to an aquatic and anhydrous environment.
Human adaptation
Man's abilities to adapt are truly grandiose. The secrets of human thinking are far from fully disclosed, and the secrets of people's adaptive ability will for a long time be a mysterious topic for scientists. The superiority of Homo sapiens to other living beings lies in the ability to consciously change their behavior to the requirements of the environment or, conversely, the world around them to their needs.
The flexibility of human behavior is manifested daily. If you give the task: "give examples of the adaptation of people", the majority begins to recall exceptional cases of survival in extreme conditions. These are rare cases, and social adaptation in new circumstances is peculiar to a person every day. We try on a new environment at the time of birth, in kindergarten, school, in a team, when moving to another country. It is this state of acceptance of new sensations by the body that is called stress. Stress is a psychological factor, but nevertheless, under its influence, many physiological functions change. In the case when a person accepts the 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 daily working hours. In the process of evolution, various types of people have formed, depending on the territorial place of residence. Arctic, alpine, continental, desert, equatorial types differ significantly in physiological indicators.
- Psychological adaptation. This is a person’s ability to find moments of understanding with people of different psychotypes in a country with a different mentality. It is common for a reasonable person to change his established stereotypes under the influence of new information, special cases, stress.
- Social adaptation. A type of addiction that is peculiar only to man.
All adaptive types are closely interconnected, as a rule, any change in habitual existence causes a person to need social and psychological adaptation. Under their influence, mechanisms of physiological changes come into effect, which also adapt to new conditions.
This mobilization of all body reactions is called adaptation syndrome. New reactions of the body appear in response to sudden changes in the situation. At the first stage - anxiety - there is a change in physiological functions, changes in the work of metabolism and systems. Next, the protective functions and organs (including the brain) are connected, they begin to include their protective functions and hidden capabilities. The third stage of adaptation depends on individual characteristics: a person either enters a new life and enters into a normal course (in medicine, recovery occurs during this period), or the body does not accept stress, and the consequences take on a negative form.
The 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, a miracle is inherent in ourselves. An example of adaptation: the ability of people to adapt to normal life after removal of a significant part of the internal organs.
Natural innate immunity throughout life can be strengthened by a number of factors or, conversely, weaken with an improper lifestyle. Unfortunately, passion for bad habits is also the difference between a person and other living organisms.