Ministry of Health of Ukraine

Kharkiv National Medical University

Medical Biology Department

The biosphere as a system that

provides existence of human being.
Human ecology

Prepared by assistant teacher Kuznetsov K.A.

 Ecology Global
ecology
Landscape
Ecology (classic ecology) is the ecology
scientific study of the Ecosystem
interactions between organisms ecology
and the environment Community
ecology
Human ecology deals with the Population
relationship between humans, ecology
human societies, and their Organismal
natural, social and created ecology
environments.

Neoecology is reformed approach in classic ecological studies together

with the estimation of human impact on environmental characteristics
in modern condition of biosphere
 The biosphere
The biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all
living beings and their relationships, including their interaction
with the elements of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and
atmosphere; the sum of all the planet’s ecosystems.
Components of biosphere:
• living matter — all living organisms;
• organic matter — all forms of detritus, peat, coal, oil, and gas
of biogenic origin, e.g. atmospheric O2 and CO2;
• bioinert matter — a composition of organic and inert matter
(soil, mud, natural water, gas and oil shale, tar sands,
carbonate sediments);
• inert matter — non-living substance.
 The ecosystem
The ecosystem is a community of living organisms with the non-
living components of their environment (air, water and mineral
soil), interacting as a system with exchange and transfer of
substances, energy and information.
Biotic components of ecosystem:
• Producers are organisms, like green plants and some bacteria,
that produce organic compounds from inorganic compounds.
The producers are autotrophs.
• Consumers are organisms, such as animals, that feed on other
organisms or their remains. The consumers are heterotrophs.
• Decomposers are organisms of decay (e.g., some bacteria,
fungi, earthworms) that break down dead organisms.
 Human taxonomic position
within the living world
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Craniata, or Vertebrata
Class Mammalia
Order Primates
Family Hominidae
Genus Homo
Species Homo sapiens sapiens
 Environmental factors
affecting human being
• abiotic factors — non-living chemical and physical
factors of environment that affect living organisms and
the functioning of ecosystems as well (temperature,
sunlight, pH etc.)
• biotic factors — living components that affect the
population of another organism, or the environment
(parasites, venomous organisms etc.)
• anthropogenic factors — effects or objects resulting
from human activity (deforestation, agriculture, energy
production, fishing, meat production, transport, etc.)
 Water pollutants
• inorganic compounds — acids, ammonia,
chemical wastes, nitrates, phosphates,
chlorine, fluorine, heavy metals etc.
• organic compounds — dioxins, detergents,
disinfection by-products, insecticides,
herbicides, petroleum, solvents, drugs etc.
• microorganisms — E. coli, Vibrio cholerae,
Salmonella spp. etc.
 Water-related diseases
• Water-borne diseases: infections spread through
contaminated drinking water (amoebiasis, lambliasis,
fascioliasis, schistosomiasis, cholera, salmonellosis, hepatitis
A, poliomyelitis etc.)
• Water-washed diseases: diseases due to the lack of proper
sanitation and hygiene (shigella infection, scabies etc.)
• Water-based diseases: infections transmitted through an
aquatic invertebrate organism (dracunculiasis, schistosomiasis
etc.)
• Water-related vector-borne diseases: diseases transmitted by
insects whose life cycle needs water for their reproduction
(malaria, onchocerciasis etc.)
 Methods of water purification
Mechanical (filtration, sedimentation etc.)
Physical-chemical (coagulation and flocculation,
dissolved air flotation, removal of ions and other
dissolved substances, disinfection)
Biological (biofiltration with some groups of
microorganisms)
 Deficiency and excess of minerals
Calcium deficiency — osteoporosis (weak and fragile bones)
Iron deficiency — anaemia
Cobalt deficiency — anaemia
Iodine deficiency — hypothyroidism, also known as goiter
Oxygen deficiency — hypoxia
Copper deficiency and excess — disorder of lipid metabolism,
disorder of erythropoiesis (RBCs production), osteoporosis, Wilson
disease
Molybdenum excess — nose and throat irritation, coughing,
disorder of purine nucleotide metabolism, accumulation of uric
acid (pain and swelling of joints)
Strontium excess — chondrodystrophy, osteoporosis, anaemia
 The effects of changes
of body temperature
Rising of body temperature Falling of body temperature
Effects on enzyme activity Effects on enzyme activity
Effects on immunity Cooling-caused enhancing of
muscular activity (shivering)
Effects on membrane Vasoconstriction, decreased
transport, metabolism; sweating
necrosis and apoptosis of
malignant tumours
Heat related illness (over 41- Stimulates fat burning
42°C)
Artificial hyperthermia is used
in cure of some diseases
Ecogenetics is a branch of genetics that studies
influence of hereditary factors on the response
of organisms to their environment
 
Pharmacogenetics is the study of genetically
determined responses to drugs.
It studies inherited genetic differences in drug
metabolic pathways, which can affect individual
responses to drugs, both in terms of therapeutic
effect as well as adverse effects.
Genetic susceptibility to adverse effects of drugs

Enzyme defect Triggering drug Pathological

reaction
Glucose-6- Antimalarial medications Hemolysis of red
phosphate (primaquine, quinine), blood cells
dehydrogenase sulfanilamides

Acetyltransferase Isoniazid, sulfadimidine Side effects of drugs

Pseudocholyn- Dithylinum Long-term
esterase respiratory arrest
Methemoglobin Diaphenyl sulfone, Cyanosis
reductase primaquine, phenacetin
Glutathione Topical glucocorticoids The increase of
reductase (eyes) pressure in the eye
 Оrigin(s) of individual variation in
substance response in some patients
Hemolysis of red blood cells — glucose-6-phosphate
dehydrogenase deficiency, or favism, snake venoms, Rh-
and ABO-incompatibility
Lactose intolerance — galactosemia
Gluten (wheat protein) intolerance — coeliac disease
Sensitivity to oxygen deficiency — anaemia
Sensitivity to tobacco smoke and industrial air pollution —
asthma, α1-antitrypsin deficiency, emphysema
Alcohol intolerance — deficiency of alcohol dehydrogenase
enzyme
 Biorhythms
The biorhythm is an innately determined
rhythmic biological process or function (as sleep
behaviour).

Types of biorhythms: circadian (24-hour),

ultradian (less than 24-hour), infradian (longer
than 24-hour), and circannual (annual) rhythms
 Biorhythms
Effects of biorhythms on human organism:
Adaptive rhythms allow to living things to adapt to
regular alterations of ecological factors of
environment
Physiological rhythms maintain vital functions
continuously
Individual biorhythm cycles:
• 23-day physical cycle
• 28-day emotional cycle
• 33-day intellectual cycle
 Chronic diseases with annual periodicity

• psychotic disorders
• diseases of circulatory system
• diseases of skin and subcutaneous tissue
• diseases of the digestive system
• allergic diseases
 Adaptations of human being
1. Hypoxia — increase in RBC count, increase in the mean
level of hemoglobin in RBC and myoglobin in striated
muscles
2. Hypokinesia — suppression of CNS activity, changes of
metabolism, loss of minerals, bone demineralization,
muscular atrophy
3. High and low temperature — changes in cutaneous blood
flow and oxidative metabolism, alteration of enzyme
activity
4. Changes of nutrition — adaptations to low vitamin C diet
in Eskimo, alteration of enzyme activity
5. Oxygen deficiency — alteration of enzyme activity
 Venomous vs Poisonous
• Venomous organisms deliver or inject venom
into other organisms, using a specialized
apparatus of some kind (usually fangs or a
stinger).

• Poisonous organisms do not deliver their toxins

directly. The entire body, or large parts of it, may
contain the poisonous substance. These
organisms may be harmful when eaten or
touched.
 Venomous organisms Poisonous organisms
black widow spiders, or Bacteria : Clostridium
redback spiders, recluse botulinum, Vibrio cholerae,
spiders, funnel-web spiders, Corynebacterium diphtheria,
banana spiders, honey bees, blue-green algae
wasps, ants, box jellyfish, sea (cyanobacteria) etc.
wasp jellyfish, cone shells, Fungi : molds (e.g. Aspergillus
blue-ringed octopus, the spp.), death cap, fly agaric, etc.
yellow-lipped sea krait (a sea Animals: stinging caterpillars,
snake), the inland taipan, reef blister beetles, monarch
stonefish etc. butterflies, cinnabar moths etc.
 Poisonous plants
jimsonweed, or Devil’s snare, aconite, deadly
nightshade (Atropa belladonna), tobacco
(Nicotiana tabacum), potato, rhubarb, stinging
nettles, lily of the valley, oleander, gas plant, or
burning-bush etc.
 Examples of KROK-1 questions
A group of students has representatives of different
races. One of the students has straight black hair
and overhanging skin fold of superior eyelid —
epicanthus. What race does this student most
probably represent?
A. Negroid
B. Europeoid
C. Australoid
D. Mongoloid
E. Ethiopian
 Examples of KROK-1 questions
Representatives of а certain human population are
characterized by elongated body shapes, height
variability, elongated limbs, small muscle mass, small
size and volume of rib cage, high sweating rate, low
basal metabolic rate and fat synthesis. What climate is
this population adapted to?
A. Tropical
B. Intermediate
C. Mountain
D. Moderate
E. Arctic
 Examples of KROK-1 questions
Indigenous population of Pamir has the following
characteristic features: high rate of base metabolism,
elongated tubular bones, wide rib cage, high blood
oxygen capacity due to increased number of
erythrocytes, high hemoglobin level. What type of
ecological adaptation is it?
A. Subtropical
B. Arctic
C. Tropical
D. Mountain
E. Temperate
 Examples of KROK-1 questions
People of various nations, who live in the Arctic climate,
develop a number of features to adapt to this
environment. Representatives of the Arctic adaptive
type compared to the natives of the Central Africa have
the following characteristic feature:
A. Lower need for fat intake
B. Elongated legs and shorter arms
C. Increased layer of subcutaneous fat
D. Hyperhidrosis
E. Lean stature