Preface

The assessments presented in the seven papers published in this journal deal with the effects of ozone depletion on human health and the environment and the consequences of interactions between ozone depletion and global climate change. This report is produced in the first instance as a limited edition for governments, via the United Nations Environment Programme. The report is now made more readily available to the scientific community by publication in the scientific literature. It was written by the 42 members and co-authors of the Panel, reviewed by 45 scientists from a number of countries, and is based on the research work by many more colleagues and scientists in many fields.

The assessment is presented here in full. We hope that publication in this scientific journal will give it a wide readership. As editors and panel members, we also hope that it will help keep scientists aware of their involvement in the protection of the environment for all forms of life on Earth.

 

Keith R. Solomon

Janet F. Bornman

Acknowledgments

Cover illustration

We thank Dr Cedric Fichot for supplying the cover for this issue.

The cover illustrates terrestrial inputs of dissolved organic carbon into the Arctic Ocean (browner colours) as determined by an optical metric based on the spectral slope between 275–295 nm. This ultraviolet radiation (UV) based metric can be linked to remote sensing instruments on satellites, and is an effective tracer of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) that can reduce the UV transparency of inland and coastal waters. Solar UV disinfection of parasites and pathogens is correspondingly reduced in regions with high CDOM. See Häder et al., Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/c4pp90035a.

Financial support

Publication of this special issue by the journal, Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences, was made possible by financial support from:

• Ecosystems Research Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency, USA

• Institute for Conservation Biology and Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Australia

• International Institute of Agri-Food Security, Curtin University, Australia

• Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

• Loyola University, J.H. Mullahy Endowed Chair in Environmental Biology, USA

• Miami University, Eminent Scholar in Ecosystem Ecology, USA

• National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University

• State Environmental Protection Commonwealth Project of China (201309073)

• Telethon Kids Institute, Australia

• The Japanese Ministry of the Environment, Japan

• The National Center for Atmospheric Research, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, USA

Our thanks to the reviewers

This assessment would not have been possible without the contributions of the following reviewers (in alphabetical order), all of whom made written and/or verbal comments on the content of the papers in this assessment. We thank them for their generous contribution of time and knowledge:

Dr Marcos Andrade, Prof. Manuel Anton, Dr Pedro J. Aphalo, Dr Marianne Berwick, Prof. Lars Olof Björn, Dr Mario Blumthaler, Dr Natalia Chubarova, Dr Thomas P. Coohill, Dr Sandra L. Cooke, Dr Raul Cordero, Dr Rose Cory, Prof. Andy Davis, Dr Tad Day, Prof. Edward DeFabo, Dr Susana Diaz, Prof. Nils Ekelund, Dr Dylan Gwynn-Jones, Prof. Prue Hart, Prof. Michaela Hegglin, Prof. Wen-Che Hou, Dr Gareth Jenkins, Dr Stelios Kazadzis, Prof. Jennifer Y. King, Dr Helena Korpelainen, Dr Shaoshan Li , Dr Masaji Ono, Dr Madan Pal, Dr Ruben Piacentini, Prof. Henning Rodhe, Prof. Andrew L. Rose, Prof. Gunther Seckmeyer, Dr Jonathan Shanklin, Dr Anna Maria Siani, Dr J. Richard Soulen, Dr Johanna Tamminen, Prof. Hugh R. Taylor, Dr Fiona Tummon, Prof. Roland von Glasow, Dr Jason Wargent, Dr Ann R. Webb, Prof. Cheryl A. Wilson, Dr Caradee Wright, Prof. Huixiang Xie, Prof. Prodromos Zanis, and Dr Francesco Zaratti.

Review meeting

The review meeting of the Panel was held in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China. We thank the University of Zhengzhou and the University of Peking for providing logistical support and assistance. The Yuda Palace Hotel, Zhengzhou, provided excellent facilities for the meeting and we thank the staff for exceptional service and attention to detail.

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