Environmental Effect of Thermoregulatory Energy Balance for Migratory Pacific Populations

Abstract:

Native Polynesians are taller and heavier than members of the populations in Melanesia and islands in Southeast Asia (Houghton, 1990), from which they likely descend. Houghton (1990) suggested that Polynesian body size might be the result of selective pressures during early voyages of discovery and settlement. Previous research primarily focused on oceanic voyages and their thermoregulatory challenges. However, little research has been done to assess the energy requirements for populations inhabiting these islands. This research aims to fill this gap by applying a Body Energy Balance Model (BEBM) to assess the energy requirements of thermoregulation for populations occupying various regions across the Pacific. Here we describe resting thermal energy balance to a female body based on a BEBM that uses inputs of wind speed, air temperature, and incoming shortwave radiation from a climate reanalysis. Python programming was used to process, average and visualize these data sets. Results indicate that the move from the western Pacific islands into East Polynesia and beyond would have exposed populations to greater rates of body heat loss. This should build on Houghton’s (1990) and Montenegro’s (2023) assertions that Polynesian body size might be the result of climatological pressures during oceanic voyages moving east through the Pacific.

Keywords: Pacific Archeology, Human Climate Interaction, Migration, Polynesia, Thermoregulation

Authors: