title: Environmental stress and adaptational responses: consequences for human health outcomes.
abstract: With the dramatic pace of modernization of the world's population, human adaptation as a theoretical construct and paradigm will likely become a focal scientific issue involving scientists from many disciplinary areas during the 21st Century. Macro and micro environments are in rapid flux and human populations are exposed to rapid change. The concept of adaptation, at least in the field of biological anthropology and human biology, will likely remain tied to evolutionary processes and concepts of selection and fitness. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical constructs of adaptation and adaptability and select three current examples from our ongoing research that involve studies of adaptation and evolutionary processes in modernizing populations in different locations worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA. rgarruto@binghamton.edu
authors.forename: Ralph M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Garruto
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Little
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Weitz
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004194:Disease; D004782:Environmental Health; D006801:Humans; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012098:Reproduction; D013315:Stress, Psychological