Package photobiology is a set of tools designed to facilitate photobiology-related data analysis and simulation. It is the core a suite of packages with additional packages providing support for plotting spectra with pacakge 'ggplot2', example data sets and definitions that are specific to certain subject areas.

We have attempted to keep a good balance between fast computation, easy to maintain code, and a clear interface. The package has in addition to user-friendly methods and objects, also functions optimized for raw performance.

This suite of R packages started as a rewrite of the package UVcalc that was developed as a companion to a handbook of methods in plant UV photobiology writen within the COST Action FA0906 UV4growth.

The programming has been done until now by Pedro J. Aphalo, but the information used was collected, discussed and evaluated in many cases by other contributors to the handbook and by researchers in academy and industry.

Aphalo, P. J., Albert, A., Björn, L. O., McLeod, A. R., Robson, T. M., & Rosenqvist, E. (Eds.) (2012) Beyond the Visible: A handbook of best practice in plant UV photobiology (1st ed., p. xxx + 174). Helsinki: University of Helsinki, Department of Biosciences, Division of Plant Biology. ISBN 978-952-10-8363-1 (PDF), 978-952-10-8362-4 (paperback). PDF file available from http://hdl.handle.net/10138/37558

Please, see the web site R4Photobiology for details on other packages available as part of the suite, and on how to install them.

The current release of photobiology is available through CRAN for R (>= 3.2.0).