title: Variations and trends of biologically effective doses of solar ultraviolet radiation in Asia, Europe and South America from 1999 to 2007.
abstract: Biological monitoring of solar UV radiation using spore dosimeters has been undertaken since the year 1999 at more than 20 sites in Asia, Europe and South America. The monthly-cumulative data to the end of the year 2004 have been presented before. In this paper, successive data to the end of the year 2007 are compiled and the trends and correlation analyses with yearly and monthly average amounts of columnar ozone are presented. Mean yearly doses at 10 northern and 6 southern hemisphere sites exhibited exponential latitudinal gradients with similar slopes indicating a doubling of the dose with the decline of about 14 degrees. Among 12 sites where continual data for more than 6 years were available, increasing trends in yearly UV doses were observed at 11 sites. At one European (Brussels), two tropical Asian (Padang and Denpasar), and two South American (São Martinho and Punta Arenas) sites, decreasing trends of ozone amounts were noted, whereas at the remaining 6 sites (five sites in Japan and Thessaloniki), increasing trends of the UV doses were observed without notable changes, or with an increase at one site (Kiyotake), of the average ozone amounts. At one site (Taipei), the UV doses and the ozone amounts stayed constant. In the monsoon areas, climatic variations and changes, particularly in the extent of cloudiness and frequency of rainfall in summer months, might have been largely responsible for the trends of the UV doses. However, even at these sites, the decreases in the ozone amounts in summer months were frequently observed and might have contributed to the increasing trends of the UV doses. Since each region and locality is unique in climatic and atmospheric conditions, it is not easy to generalize the global trends. However, at many sites involved in this monitoring project, the increases in the biological UV doses during this period seemed to be linked to the decreases in the ozone amounts.
authors.affiliation: Biophysics Laboratory and Research Information Center for Extremophiles, Faculty of Science, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Munakata
authors.forename: Stelios
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kazadzis
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bolseé
authors.forename: Nelson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schuch
authors.forename: Tapani
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koskela
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karpetchko
authors.forename: Charoula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meleti
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Casiccia
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barcellos da Rosa
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saida
authors.forename: Chikako
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nishigori
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ogata
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Imafuku
authors.forename: Chung-Ming
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Sri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lestari
authors.forename: Mpu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kanoko
authors.forename: Santoso
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cornain
authors.forename: Ketut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mulyadi
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hieda
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation; D005060:Europe; D005843:Geography; D010126:Ozone / Q000032:analysis* / Q000528:radiation effects; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation; D016082:Solar System; D013020:South America; D013997:Time Factors; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
chemical_list: D010126:Ozone