Determining different human variations in high altitude populations

Although most people adapt culturally to their surroundings, in a high altitude environment these cultural changes alone aren"t enough.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the high altitude stresses and the general adaptations made by the Tibetan population in the Himalayas and the Quechua in the Andes. In this paper I will describe the high altitude stresses.

Along with adaptations made by the populations living in them.

Essay, term paper, research paper: Science

The two high altitude populations which I will examine in this paper are the Tibetan people of the Asian Himalayas and the Quechua of the South American Andes. The Quechua are an Indian people who inhabit the highlands of Peru and Bolivia.

They speak Quechua, which is a branch of the Andean-Equitorial stock. They show many remnants of Inca heritage by their houses, music, and religion which has pagan rites under the Roman-Catholic surface.

Their villages consist of kin groups. Their marriage partners are taken from within each village. High altitudes contain very scanty oxygen concentration and as one approaches top of the highest mountains oxygen is almost non-existent. Agriculture is the dominant subsistence pattern in the central Andean region but the Nunoa region where the Quechua reside can only support a few frost-resistant crops.

Which include bitter potato, sweet potato, and a few grain crops of quinoa and. The most important subsistence pattern for the Quechua is stock raising. Which is limited to the few animals that do well in the high altitudes. Their stock include alpacas, llamas and sheep.

Essay on Science. Research Paper on Human Variations in High Altitude Populations

The main crops are barley, wheat and buckwheat. The crops are grown between 3, and 4, meters. These few crops are threatened by drought, hail, frost, snow and erosion.

The Himalayas also have extensive pasture areas which are used by the nomadic and sedentary peoples. The higher regions have pastures where yak, sheep, and goats are the main animals used.

Genetics of human origin and evolution: high-altitude adaptations - ScienceDirect

In the high altitude there are many environmental stresses that the people must endure. They include hypoxia, intense ultraviolet radiation, cold, aridity, and a limited nutritional base.

The people adapt to these stresses in many ways. Hypoxia, or low oxygen pressure, is the most prominent stress which populations living at high altitudes must deal with.

Materials and Methods

Since air is compressible, air at high altitudes is less concentrated and under less pressure. This reduces the amount of oxygen finally available to the tissue Moran, Human Variations in High Altitude Populations Jessyca Caumo 26 november Thesis:The purpose of this paper is to describe the high altitude stresses and the general adaptations made by the Tibetan population in the Himalayas and the Quechua in the Andes.

Some million persons live permanently at high altitudes (> m) in North, Central and South America, East Africa, and Asia. Reviewed here are recent studies which address the question as to whether genetic adaptation to high altitude has occurred.

Genetic Variations in Tibetan Populations and High-Altitude Adaptation at the Himalayas By applying the genomic approach and sampling multiple Tibetan populations of different geographic origins, Human genetic adaptation to high altitude. Children living at high altitudes develop a larger chest cavity by adulthood than children living at lower altitudes.

This is an example of ________. environmental adaptations that occur at the individual level. Sep 09,  · High-altitude hypoxia is caused by decreased barometric pressure at high altitude, and results in severe physiological stress to the human body. Three human populations have resided at high altitude for millennia including Andeans on the Andean Altiplano, Tibetans on the Himalayan plateau, and Ethiopian highlanders on the Semian Plateau.

Essay Human Variations in High Altitude Populations Jessyca Caumo 26 november Thesis:The purpose of this paper is to describe the high altitude stresses and the general adaptations made by the Tibetan population in the Himalayas and the Quechua in the Andes.