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Contemporary Problems of Ecology

2004 year, number 1

Analysis of the Cycles of Human Mortality and Variations of Ozonosphere Using Dendro-chronological Data

V. V. ZUEV, N. E. ZUEVA, S. L. BONDARENKO

Abstract

The first attempt is made to carry out quantitative analysis of the connection between human mortality cycles and changes in UV-B radiation due to the variations of the ozonosphere together with the cycles of solar activity.
The data on total ozone content of the stratosphere (TO) were obtained with the help of the procedure described in the present paper, which involves reconstruction of a retrospective view of the behaviour of the ozonosphere on the basis of the density of annual tree-rings.
Systematic decrease in TO causes an increase in the UV-B radiation, growing stress of human organism because of the action of UV-B radiation, and therefore an increase in death rate. As a rule, the major peaks of mortality coincide with the maxima of solar activity, because short-wavelength radiation of the Sun, including the UV-B region, increases sharply at those moments. However, within the phase of quiet Sun, the filtering ability of the ozonosphere toward the UV-B radiation turns out to be predominant. Because of this, in general, correlation with TO is higher.