2.1: Introduction to human ecology

Question 1

Human ecology

Answer 1

Trans-disciplinary study of the dialectical relationship between humans and their environment

Question 2

Give an example of a human ecology study

Answer 2

How do fisher peoples in South-East Asia fish in such dangerous waters?
How are fisheries impacting the world?
What is the impact of fisheries socio-politically?
What is the impact on the health and wellbeing of fisher peoples?

Question 3

What are the three objectives of human ecology research?

Answer 3

1. Understanding biological variation and evolution
2. Understanding cultural variation and evolution
3. Understanding the implication of dynamic human/environment interactions on human health and planet health

Question 4

Which 6 disciplines does human ecology combine?

Answer 4

Biology
Natural science
Evolutionary anthropology
Environmental physiology
Social anthropology
Biological anthropology

Question 5

Human adaptation

Answer 5

Study of how humans cope (physiologically) with environmental stress (social and biotic environments)

Question 6

Give 3 examples of fisher adaptations to environmental stress

Answer 6

1. The Inuit fisher people have genetic adaptation to nutritional environmental stress so they can metabolise a lot of fat without the negative effects of a high fat diet
2. Huge diaspora of people across the coast of West Africa with the migration of fish along the same coast
3. Physical environmental stress of the cold in early childhood can condition hand temperature

Question 7

What is Moran’s definition of human adaptation (1979)?

Answer 7

Population change due to changes in gene frequencies that give reproductive success in a particular environment

Question 8

What is Frisancho’s definition of human adaption (1993)?

Answer 8

Any change in an organism due to exposure to an altered environment that enables the organism to function more efficiently; from individuals to populations

Question 9

What is McElroy & Townsend’s definition of human adaptation (2015)?

Answer 9

Changes, modifications, and variations in physical and behavioural traits enabling a person or group to meet the challenges of a given environment

Question 10

Describe the seminal work on adaptation in the 1950s

Answer 10

Allison and Livingston worked on adaptation and malaria
The sickle-cell anaemia allele persists in heterozygous individuals who are resistant to malaria; human culture itself is responsible for the selection of this gene in human populations
It was the first real articulation of the fact that human culture affects infectious disease, which can play a role in human evolution
Proving that multiple disciplines could explain ecological origin of health problems and how to deal with them

Question 11

Describe the International Biological Program study in the 1960s and 70s

Answer 11

Study in 40 countries consisting of 230 projects to examine the ecology of mankind by looking at 3 different environments: high altitude, cold stress, and heat stress

Question 12

What were the biological and non-biological findings of the International Biological Program study in the 1960s and 70s?

Answer 12

Biological: humans respond to environmental stressors through phenotypic acclimatisation rather than genetic adaptation

Non-biological: challenging social, economic and political conditions exerted greater pressure on human biology than physical environmental stressors; poverty and powerlessness limited adaptive capacity

Question 13

State and describe the 3 dimensions of adaptions

Answer 13

1. Cultural: rapid, shared, learned social behaviour allows cumulative cultural change
2. Physiological: short term acclimation (sweating), long term acclimatization (increased red blood cells), plasticity during developmental physical growth
3. Genetic: natural selection upon genetic variation that is inherited over generations

Question 14

What are the 2 human buffers against environmental stress?

Answer 14

Culture & technology

Physiology

Question 15

Considering human buffers against environmental stress, are genetic adaptations now irrelevant for humans?

Answer 15

No
They are still required to access resources
Buffers could fail against environmental changes (climate change, disease)

Question 16

List the 4 aspects of 90s-present biocultural research

Answer 16

1. Growth and developmental studies in response to nutritional stress
2. How cultures create biologies
3. How daily events and political economic processes affect blood pressure, stress hormones, etc.
4. How inequality gets under the skin

Question 17

What 3 aspects did 21st Century biocultural research renew interest in?

Answer 17

1. The impact of global physical and biotic environmental stressors
2. Emerging and re-emerging infectious disease
3. Increased inequality

Question 18

What evidence suggests we are in the anthropocene (3)?

Answer 18

1. Scale and rate of change of CO2 and methane concentrations
2. Plastics likely to leave identifiable fossil records
3. Unprecedented speeds of species extinction

Question 19

What are the 4 ecosystem services?

Answer 19

1. Supporting
2. Provisioning
3. Regulating
4. Cultural

Question 20

What are the 5 constituents of human well being?

Answer 20

1. Security
2. Basic material for good life
3. Health
4. Good social relations
5. Freedom of choice and action

Question 21

What are the 9 environmental changes and ecosystem impairments due to human pressure?

Answer 21

Climate change
Stratospheric ozone depletion
Forest clearance and land-cover change
Land degradation and desertification
Wetlands loss and damage
Biodiversity loss
Freshwater depletion and contamination
Urbanisation and its impacts
Damage to costal reefs and ecosystems

Question 22

What are the 3 types of health impacts that arise from environmental changes and ecosystem impairments?

Answer 22

1. Direct health impacts
2. ‘Eco-system-mediated’ health impacts
3. Indirect health impacts

Question 23

Give 3 examples of direct impacts that arise from environmental changes and ecosystem impairments

Answer 23

1. Extreme weather events (floods, heat waves, landslides)
2. Increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation
3. Air pollution

Question 24

Give 6 examples of ‘eco-system-mediated’ health impacts that arise from environmental changes and ecosystem impairments

Answer 24

1. Altered infectious disease risk
2. Reduced food yields (malnutrition, stunting)
3. Water shortage
4. Depletion of natural medicines
5. Mental health (personal, community)
6. Impacts of aesthetic/cultural impoverishment

Question 25

Give 4 examples of indirect health impacts that arise from environmental changes and ecosystem impairments

Answer 25

1. Diverse health consequences of livelihood loss
2. Population displacement (including slum dwelling)
3. Conflict
4. Inappropriate adaptation and mitigation

Question 26

Syndemic

Answer 26

Situation where diseases cluster together within a population/within an individual’s body

Question 27

Ecosyndemics

Answer 27

Changes in the physical environment act to increase the synergies between the disease clusters

Question 28

Example of ecosyndemics

Answer 28

Global warming, pollution, and toxins increase asthma and respiratory infections, which leads to respiratory bacterial infections and pneumonia

Question 29

State the 4 next steps for global environmental change and human health research

Answer 29

1. Explore multiple health outcomes from an ecosystem alteration, rather than may generate more a single health outcome
2. Factor in human responses and adaptations to environmental changes
3. Be more specific about whose health is being studied within a population or explicitly disaggregate different segments of a population to look at differential impacts
4. Needs to be more interdisciplinary