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Effect of Light and Behavior on Nutrition^{1, 2}

Michigan State University, East Lansing 48823

Abstract

Repeated biological observations over many years have made scientists acutely aware of periodic functions in animals. Some of these functions, such as the animal reproductive cycle of certain birds or mammals and pelage (hair growth) changes in some mammals, have been of adaptive significance, and others, such as periodicity of food intake and perching of birds, have dealt with diurnal cycles in locomotor activities.

It has long been known that in aves supplemental light enhances egg production. The once widely believed theory that the additional light merely afforded an opportunity for increased feeding activity was unfounded.

Light periodicity influences animal functioning through two modes of interaction: (1) annual cycling is responsive to the gradual variation in the duration of the photoperiod and scotoperiod, the direction of the change being photostimulatory or photoinhibitory to a particular system and (2) endogenous diurnal cycling (circadian rhythm) is synchronized by the dark-light sequence provided by the environment.

¹ Presented at the Symposium on Influence of Environment on Nutrient Requirements of Animals, at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science, Davis, California, August 2, 1971. Co-sponsored by the Committee on Animal Nutrition, National Research Council.

² Journal Article No. 5802, Michigan Agriculture Experiment Station.