An example of adaptation of people and animals in the surrounding world. Physiological adaptations: examples

The grandiose inventions of the human mind never cease to amaze, there are no limits to imagination. But what nature has created for many centuries surpasses the most creative ideas and plans. 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 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.

What is adaptation?

Adaptation means adaptability or habituation. This is the process of gradual degeneration of the physiological, morphological or psychological functions of a creature in a changed environment. Both individuals and entire populations are subject to change.

A striking 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 that managed to survive, get used to it and begin to reproduce; some did not survive the test and died (indirect adaptation).

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

A recent example of adaptation is a change in the habitat of a colony of green Mexican aratinga parrots. Recently, they changed their usual habitat and settled in the very mouth of the Masaya volcano, in an environment constantly saturated with highly concentrated sulfur gas. Scientists have not yet provided an explanation for this phenomenon.

Three approaches to adaptation

“Optical” - “you work, and we’ll look at you”

This approach cannot be called successful. Employers who choose it prefer to discuss the employee's salary and responsibilities after looking at him in action. There is practically no training; a beginner gets to work right away. If he doesn't fit, they hire someone else. For a new employee, this can result in frustration and a feeling of uselessness.

“Army” - “hard in training, easy in battle”

The probationary period becomes a real test of survival - the newcomer is given complex and responsible tasks, but is not explained how to complete them. Under these conditions, only the most purposeful remain. The employee who was not suitable is parted with and a new one is hired. This method has negative consequences: after joining the staff, the new employee relaxes or begins to “revenge”. Newcomers in such organizations are treated with hostility or tried not to notice - it is unknown how long they will last. Thus, an attempt to hire the best personnel results in the long term in a bad attitude towards work and conflicts in the team.

“Affiliate” – “we will help”

This approach is the result of an effective personnel policy. The employer realizes that there are no ideal candidates, does not delay the search, but chooses the most suitable person for the position. Entry into work is as smooth as possible - the employee is trained, introduced to the organization, and assigned a mentor so that he can ask him his questions.

Vladimir Trofimenko , General Director of the Mankiewicz representative office in Russia and the CIS countries, Member of the Strategic Council for Investments in New Industries under the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade:

“Our project management system was implemented in a natural, organic way and was based on the desire to achieve the company’s goals. We do not have a department that could deal with personnel adaptation. Instead, a “start-up” system has been introduced. They are formed based on the psychophysiological characteristics of each participant and are based on continuous training of team leaders who monitor balance, clear planning and hierarchy within the team. With this approach, the effectiveness of an entire department is always greater than the sum of the abilities of its constituent employees. Each startup is recruited for a specific project, and its duration depends on the deadline for completing the task. As soon as one startup closes, a new one is immediately formed, with a different composition of employees. Thus, the new employee does not go through a long adaptation process, but immediately gets to work and gets to know his startup colleagues. When the task changes, the newcomer begins to delve into the specifics of the work of another startup and works with other colleagues. It is quite difficult to accept a structure where there are no instructions for staff, a percentage of sales and penalties. But the results speak for themselves: at Mankiewicz, our average employee tenure is 12 years, and there is no staff turnover that plagues Russian companies. Many stay with us after coming for an internship for the first time as students. This means that the system confirms its effectiveness.”

Types of adaptation

A change in the entire form of existence of an organism is a functional adaptation. An example of adaptation, when a change in conditions leads 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’s adaptation to natural conditions or society). There are cases when a subject adapts the environment to suit his needs - this is objective adaptation.

Biologists divide 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 species.

Human adaptation to the environment: what relates to natural conditions

Each country has certain natural conditions. The African continent is fundamentally different from European countries. Asia is the complete opposite of the countries of South or North America. Existing natural conditions include:

• Features of the geographical location;
• Climatic conditions;
• The nature of inland waters;
• Type of soil and terrain;
• Vegetation;
• Representatives of the animal world.

The body undergoes two-way adaptation. He adapts to the environment on his own, while at the same time trying to make new conditions comfortable for his body. A person arranges a home, studies the population, and selects a suitable product. He can build a house that is familiar to him or purchase transport to move around a new area.

The process of adaptation of the body to weather and climatic conditions in a new area is called acclimatization. The main difference between acclimatization and adaptation is the absence of genetically fixed new properties in the body. This is a temporary process that occurs in the body forcibly and does not leave its mark on later life. After returning from a country where the weather conditions differed from the natural conditions at home, the acquired skills are gradually forgotten. The next time you travel to another continent, you will go through the acclimatization process again.

Morphological adaptations: examples

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

Below are morphological adaptations, examples from the animal and plant world, which we consider as a matter of course:

• Degeneration 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 odor by flowers to attract insects contributes to dust.
• The state of suspended animation that simple organisms are capable of entering allows them to maintain vital activity after many years. The oldest bacteria capable of reproducing is 250 years old.
• Accumulation of subcutaneous fat, which is converted into water, in camels.

Behavioral (psychological) adaptations

Examples of human adaptation are more related to the psychological factor. Behavioral characteristics are common to flora and fauna. Thus, in the process of evolution, changes in temperature conditions cause some animals to hibernate, birds to fly south to return in the spring, trees to shed their leaves and slow down the movement of sap. 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 during the winter and thaw and come to life when the weather gets warmer.

Factors driving the need for change

Any adaptation process is 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 disappears, which serves as food for another.

Abiotic factors are changes in the surrounding inanimate nature, when the climate, soil composition, water supply, 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 have adapted well to conditions where drying up of rivers is a common occurrence.

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

Features of biochemical adaptations of living organisms

Biochemical adaptations are invisible to the naked eye, but you can guess their presence in an animal by where it lives and what additional means it uses for hunting, or, conversely, for protection.

Such adaptations mean changes in the metabolic processes of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, which allow their owners to survive in conditions of high or low ambient temperatures, high or low humidity and other external factors.

If we talk about people, a striking example of such biochemical adaptation to environmental conditions is the increased tolerance of northern peoples to cadaveric poisons (many dishes of national cuisine are prepared in a very specific way), as well as the significantly increased content of red blood cells and hemoglobin in the blood of the inhabitants of the highlands - this feature prevents the development of mountain sickness.

Although there is an alternative way to adapt to rarefied air conditions - increasing the frequency of respiratory movements and heart contractions, which also helps compensate for the lack of oxygen in the inhaled air.

The biochemical adaptations of living creatures that have adapted to extreme cold conditions are also quite complex. Thus, in some species of northern fish, the blood contains a kind of antifreeze.

Adaptations to the environment

• Illumination. In plants, these are separate groups that differ in their need for sunlight. Light-loving heliophytes live well in open spaces. In contrast to them are sciophytes: plants of forest thickets that feel good in shaded places. 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 environment is considered to be from 0 to 50 °C. However, there is life in almost all climatic regions of the Earth.

Contrasting examples of adaptation to abnormal temperatures are described below.

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

The simplest microorganisms have been found in hydrothermal vents, where the water temperature exceeds boiling degrees.

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 aquatic and non-aquatic environments.

Examples of behavioral adaptations of plants, animals, people

Behavioral opportunism, which appeared most recently in evolution, is highly complex and requires a biological species to have a fairly highly developed nervous system.

This group of adaptive reactions is most clearly manifested in the example of caring for offspring. This phenomenon can already be observed in social insects. For example, to lay eggs and mature larvae, bees build honeycombs and maintain a stable temperature above the brood, since the larvae are especially vulnerable to cold.

Birds build quite complex nests and hatch eggs for a long time.

A number of fish species also show some care for their offspring. Some of them build something like a nest at the bottom, where eggs will be deposited. In this case, the male or female can remain in this place to protect the offspring.

However, such behavioral features are most pronounced in mammals. In addition to feeding with milk for quite a long time, these animals teach their offspring to protect themselves from predators, hunt, and obtain food.

This is especially pronounced in predators, whose young in most species are born almost completely helpless.

This group of adaptive reactions also includes the ability of some species to create food reserves for a certain period. A striking example of this behavior is the honey reserves of bees (which can be quite impressive in strong colonies), as well as the food reserves that squirrels, mice, beavers and some species of birds can make.

Human adaptation

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

The flexibility of human behavior manifests itself every day. If you give the task: “give examples of human adaptation,” most begin to recall exceptional cases of survival in extreme conditions. These are rare cases, and social adaptation in new circumstances is common to humans every day. We try on a new environment at the moment of birth, in kindergarten, school, in a team, or 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, 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.

Adaptation goals:

1. Cost reduction - the faster an employee integrates into the work environment, the faster he will work effectively.
2. Reduce employee turnover: If a new employee feels uncomfortable in the workplace, he may start looking for a new job. If adaptation is successful, the new employee quickly joins the team and the chance that he will stay in the company for at least three years increases by 69%.
3. Saving time for the immediate manager: adaptation according to a specific algorithm helps different departments of the organization interact better to immerse the newcomer in the work environment.
4. Reducing the stress level of a new employee.
5. Increasing employee job satisfaction.

Human coping mechanisms

There are three types of human adaptation:

• Physiological. The simplest examples are acclimatization and adaptation to changes in time zones or daily work patterns. In the process of evolution, different types of people were 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 level of mentality. Homo sapiens tend to change their established stereotypes under the influence of new information, special occasions, and 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 in a person the need for social and psychological adaptation. Under their influence, mechanisms of physiological changes come into play, 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 environment. At the first stage - anxiety - there is a change in physiological functions, changes in the functioning of metabolism and systems. Next, protective functions and organs (including the brain) are activated and 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 returns to normal (in medicine, recovery occurs during this period), or the body does not accept stress, and the consequences take a negative form.

What are complex natural conditions: human adaptation to climatic conditions

Difficult weather conditions are those that differ sharply from the standard climate. Let's look at a few examples:

1. Southern countries with a hot climate. Body temperature turns out to be lower than air temperature. This condition is difficult for an unaccustomed body to tolerate. Heat transfer is complicated, metabolism changes, breathing and blood circulation are disrupted. The person becomes apathetic and feels constant fatigue. The higher the humidity in the air, the faster the body adapts. An unaccustomed person goes through the longest period of adaptation when he finds himself in a tropical forest area. There is no wind, high levels of humidity and heat can trigger heat cramps, exhaustion, and stroke. Water and salt regimes, suitable clothing, and room cooling help speed up adaptation.
2. Mountain climate. The natural type of climate is characterized by a number of features. Low atmospheric pressure and temperature, intense solar radiation, high level of ionization. The mountain air is filled with oxygen. Hemoglobin increases in the body, the hematopoietic system is irritated, and the minute volume of the heart muscle increases. Hyperventilation occurs. Possible development of altitude sickness. It is extremely difficult for older people to endure the difficult natural conditions of a mountain climate. It will take at least a week to adapt.
3. Subarctic and arctic climate. The development of light starvation, magnetic disturbance, and magnetic storms may predominate here. From a medical point of view, these natural conditions are the most difficult. It can take more than one year for a healthy body to fully acclimatize.

Phenomena of the human body

A person has a huge reserve of safety inherent in nature, 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 lies within us. Example of adaptation: the ability of people to adapt to normal life after the removal of a significant part of their internal organs.

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

Adaptation of new employees: how to speed up

Hiring an employee is a long and complex procedure. The employee has not yet begun his duties, but financial and time resources have already been invested in him. Any employer is interested in ensuring that the adaptation of new employees takes place as quickly as possible. What you can do for this:

Develop an adaptation plan

This is a manual for the HR department and a new manager, which shows step-by-step measures to introduce the employee to the process. This can include:

• Introductory tour. This should not be neglected; often an employee is embarrassed to ask where the canteen or break room is located.
• Internal rules and regulations: work and rest hours, rules for using a mobile phone during working hours, schedule of meetings and team building events, dress code adopted by the company.
• Hiring an employee: signing an employment contract, issuing a hiring order, making an entry in the work book.
• Introducing the employee to how information is exchanged in the company: through instant messengers, email or using a CRM system, as well as issuing a login and password for corporate mail.

Any company develops, and regulations change along with it, so the plan needs to be periodically updated: remove unnecessary things and supplement with new information.

Conduct training or education

These could be events designed to train new employees or general sessions for all employees. They can be individual or group, for example, a ready-made introductory video course in a corporate training system.

Attach a mentor

It is to the mentor that the new employee can ask any questions about the organization of work, communication with other departments and other important nuances.

Establish communication with your immediate supervisor

A newbie should receive feedback from his boss. It may be worth setting aside a special time for this where you can ask all questions and get feedback on your work. It is important for a manager to pay attention to signs of maladaptation in an employee’s behavior:

• decreased performance recently;
• poor relationships with the team;
• disregard for corporate culture norms;
• violations of discipline;
• dependence on a mentor or leader;
• decreased motivation.

Include a newcomer into the life of the team

It is necessary to introduce the employee to the team, tell him what his duties will be, and what questions he can be contacted about. If the organization is large, it is better to duplicate this information in an email newsletter.

Team building events are also suitable for this. A beginner can prove himself in sports or creative projects. Not everyone is ready to immediately become actively involved in corporate life, but if a person shows initiative, we need to give him this opportunity.

Anna Leonova , employee of the personnel motivation and adaptation department of ICL Services:

“A new job is always stressful, whether you are a senior specialist or an intern. A new team, office, responsibilities or processes are all a potential risk that the newcomer will not like it and will leave for another company. That's why organizations do everything they can to minimize these risks. At ICL Services, the adaptation of new employees is worked out to the smallest detail. We understand that the less time a newcomer spends on entering a position, the faster and more efficiently he will begin to work and benefit the business. The first thing a new employee sees after HR in a company is his mentor. The mentoring program lasts 3 months and helps to socialize in a team. There is always someone nearby who can tell you: how to use the internal portal, how to apply for training, who to contact on a work issue, or where the canteen is located. ICL Services received the prestigious IT HR Awards for this program. The portal has been studied, the recruiter's kit is on the table, the equipment has been received, and now the first letter arrives in the mail. In it, the employee sees that he was expected at a new place. By the way, all colleagues also receive a newsletter with a photo of the newcomer, so that they understand which team he works for. The introductory training talks about the work of all departments of the company, social responsibility, processes and projects. Department heads and top executives come here to talk live about the company’s mission, what’s here and why. Such training is carried out as the group is recruited. To make it easier to understand the unofficial rules of behavior in open space, the company has developed a comic where it explains what is good and what is not so good. We also have an electronic adaptation course. In it, the employee sees what trainings he must undergo and what information he must study so that the work becomes clearer and easier. After the probationary period, the employee undergoes a “360” assessment, which is designed to assess his success during this period. The employee is assessed by his manager, colleagues with whom he worked, and, of course, himself. You should always remember that there are two parties involved in hiring and onboarding. And a newcomer also evaluates the company when he comes here. And if he couldn’t adapt, that’s a question for the company.”