Janaka Kuruppuarachchi

The Open University of Sri Lanka | OUSL · Department of Botany

Mangrove ecosystems provide essential ecological services, such as coastal protection, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration. This study examines the dynamics of mangrove extent across various coastal districts in Sri Lanka from 1996 to 2020. We acquired geospatial mangrove extent data in Sri Lanka from the Global Mangrove Watch data...

This review aims to address the prevailing issues of elephant intrusion and the subsequent Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) in Sri Lanka, particularly in villages where the seasonal concentration of elephants can be observed in agricultural and surrounding wetlands. The episodic gatherings of elephants in these specific areas are a serious concern due...

Recent advances in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have led to monitoring vegetation changes in restored wetlands using object-based image analysis (OBIA) and spectral indices in remote sensing. The objective of the study is to map vegetation on selected restored wetlands in California Central valley (CCV), quantify seasonal vegetation coverage, and...

Black bear bark stripping in redwoods is a threat to commercial timber production because of the detrimental effects on redwood tree health. The purpose of the study was to delineate vegetation characteristics of redwood plots at the black bear bark stripping sites at Schatz Demonstration Tree farm. FUSION, an open-source, spatially explicit, remot...

The study aims to examine the environmental literacy level of G.C.E A/L students (comparable to British Advanced Level) in the Kandy District, Sri Lanka, and to evaluate environment modules embedded into the curriculum. Furthermore, we find the relationships between environmental literacy level and socioeconomic and discipline levels. A survey with...

Recent advancements in small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) have proved useful in monitoring and counting aquatic birds in wetlands flying over flocks without disturbing them. The objective of the study is to use a semi-automated workflow to extract waterfowl species and counts from a managed wetland in Colusa County, California. Over 560 UAV image...

Developing positive attitudes by upgrading the environmental literacy level is very important to protect nature from anthropogenic pressures. This study evaluates existing knowledge, awareness, attitude and behavior, perceived issues, and solutions of undergraduates on major environmental issues of two national universities with different teaching...

Purpose -To compare the socio-economic status of undergraduates in selected conventional and ODL universities, important in the sustainable education management process. Design/methodology/approach- Piloted structured questionnaire with 10 items were adapted to gather the socio-economic status of 400 undergraduates each from a conventional (univer...

Zamioculcas zamiifolia (Lodd.) Engl. is an export-oriented, potted foliage plant used for indoor scaping. Since it shows high environmental and pest tolerability, it does not need much attention in cultivation. Thus, the aim of present study was to develop stable, novel mutants of Z. zamiifolia induced by colchicine (a mutagenic chemical) treatment...

The study chronicles a series of landmark events of Polonnaruwa Arnaganwila, dry zone of Sri Lanka carbonaceous meteorites that impacted on 29 th December 2012. The main objective of this study was to compile the citied articles for creating a plausible corresponding model to possess the sedimentation of Micro Fossils (Fosil diatoms) found in carbo...

Tropical landscapes play a tremendous role in terrestrial carbon accumulation and their quantifications is important for management of ecosystem carbon. This study examines plant and soil carbon stocks of different land-use types with the same climate and geology in Waga area. i.e., natural forests (NF), home gardens (HG), coconut plantations (CP),...

22nd International Forestry and Environment Symposium; 10th-11th November 2017 Tangerine Beach Hotel, Sri Lanka: Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura,Sri lanka. Floristic composition and carbon sequestration of "Indikada Mukalana" Forest Reserve , Waga, low land wet zone of Sri Lanka K. A. J. M. Kurup...

Coastal habitats are dynamic ecosystems that are critically important to stabilize and conserve coastal lands, provide vegetation bioshield mass and provide better ecological services. In Sri Lanka, diverse coastal habitats are vulnerable to natural and/or anthropogenic disturbances such as, tsunami, climate change, Sea Level Rise (SLR), land-use/c...

Tropical lowland wet zone forests hold the greatest plant diversity promise high plant carbon stocks. This study examines plant and soil carbon stocks of "Indikada Mukalana" Forest reserve, Waga, Sri Lanka. Five representative sampling sites (20m ×20m) in the forest were used for floristic survey and soil core sampling. Chemical and physical proper...

High-resolution aerial photographs coupled with infra-red images are useful for creating terrain models and vegetation mapping. Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) is very reliable for acquiring low altitude aerial images for low-cost and high spatial resolution. This study examined post-tsunami relief in different coastal ecosystems (i.e. mangrove, coas...

Dragonfly (Odonata) species diversity in different land use patterns of lowland tropical wet zone, Colombo district of Sri Lanka. W.A.L. Kanthika1, K.A.J.M. Kuruppuarachchi*2, M.C.M. Dharmasena3, M.G. Cooray4 1,2,3,4Department of Botany, The Open University of Sri Lanka, Nawala, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka *Correspondent Author:kajmkuruppu@gmail.com Many...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify socio-economic/demographic characteristics and to evaluate the knowledge on different open distance learning (ODL) concepts of BSc undergraduates of The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) at first registration. Design/methodology/approach The surveying technique was adapted with a piloted structure...

Sri Lanka is an island with comparatively very few land mass, and forest cover is declining at the rate of 1.5%, annually. In order to sustain the forest cover at 29%, reforestation efforts have been undertaken using native or exotic plant species. However, nursery plants of native species face up to 50% failure in establishment in reforestation. I...

IFS-Popham Arboretum is a sanctuary of tropical trees and a wildlife refuge, which had turned shifting cultivation land to a productive forest through a simple silvicultural method. The Arboretum had been gifted to the Institute of Fundamental Studies in 1989 for conservation, research and education. In 2005, the Arboretum was developed as a visito...

EXPLORING THE INPUT OF OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING PROCESSING SYSTEM OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY, SRI LANKA: DETECTING POSSIBLE INFLUENTIAL FACTORS FOR REGISTERING STUDENTS FOR THE B.SC DEGREE PROGRAMME. K. A. J. M. Kuruppuarachchi 1 *; P. Dias 2, N. C. Kannangara3 1 Department of Botany, 3Centre for Educational Technology & Media, The Open University of Sr...

Agricultural ecosystems are considered as integral part of biodiversity by the definition of ecosystem diversity. Understanding species diversity in homegardens liaison with ethnobotany, economic and ecological perspective is useful for promoting sustainable landscape planning with green infrastructure. This study examines the agrobiodiversity of r...

Agricultural ecosystems are considered as integral part of biodiversity by the definition of ecosystem diversity. Understanding species diversity in homegardens liaison with ethnobotany, economic and ecological perspective is useful for promoting sustainable landscape planning with green infrastructure. This study examines the agrobiodiversity of r...

A sufficient knowledge on prehistoric culture and habitat of earliest Homo sapiens (Balangoda man) is available in Batadomba-lena cave, a noticeable rock shelter in lowland rainforest of southwestern Sri Lanka goes upto Pleistocene and Holocene eras. Late Pleistocene inhabitants of Batadombalena cave's foraged for a broad spectrum of plant and main...

[COMPARATIVE STUDY ON PLANT USES IN THE HOMEGARDENS OF DELGODA AND KADUWELA] [B. D. Madurapperuma1* W. N. Herath2 and K. A. J. M. Kuruppuarachchi3] [1Department of Environmental Science and Management, Humboldt State University] [2,3Department of Botany, The Open University of Sri Lanka] ABSTRACT Agricultural ecosystems are considered as integra...

Many species of Odonates inhabiting in agro-ecosystems, play a crucial role in controlling pest populations and can be considered as a pollution indicator. Damselflies are important bio-control agents especially in the control of mosquito larvae. Individual Odonata species have a wide range of environmental tolerances, and are good indicators of ec...

Roadside trees are beneficial for providing ecological services, such as heat absorbance, natural air conditioning, and reducing GHG emissions in urban landscapes. This study examines the tree structure, species composition, species diversity, and some field observations (i.e. tree structural defects and disorders) on roadside trees in Colombo City...

Horticultural flora in semi-urban landscapes provide economical, ecological and aesthetic benefits, which are beneficial for promoting sustainable landscape planning with green infrastructure. We assessed the pool of cultivated species in the home gardens in the context of ethnobotany, diversity and distribution of horticultural flora in four villa...

This study examines vegetation, carbon sequestration, and spatial and temporal changes of green space at the premises of the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). The primary objective of this study is to examine floral diversity of the OUSL premises that was rehabilitated from a landfill site and to determine suitable trees for landfill sites based...

Enhancement of green cover of highly congested cities with limited land areas will provide both environmental and social benefits. The Borella Cemetery in Colombo, Sri Lanka established in the colonial era, which old more than 170 years. A part of it recognized as the biggest one of the six common wealth war cemeteries in Sri Lanka. Scientific reco...

http://www2.humboldt.edu/iew/pdf/IEW-2016-Schedule-Website-Wednesday.pdf Urban greenness survey in Colombo City of Sri Lanka: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach Colombo City in Sri Lanka is experienced a rapid infrastructure development due to centralization of social and economic endeavors. However, city planners’ are concerned with developing urban...

This study investigated the relationships amongst floristic, soil and climatic parameters and their control on carbon sequestration (CS) in two selected forest stands of Sri Lanka. Representative sam-pling sites were selected from the dry zone (Sigiriya forest sanctuary) and the wet zone (Udawattakele forest reserve) of Sri Lanka. Litter and soil s...

A sufficient knowledge on prehistoric culture and habitat of earliest Homo sapiens (Balangoda man) is available in Batadomba-lena cave, a noticeable rock shelter in lowland rainforest of southwestern Sri Lanka goes upto Pleistocene and Holocene eras. Late Pleistocene inhabitants of Batadombalena cave's foraged for a broad spectrum of plant and main...

Extended Abstract Published: ISSN:2012-9912

Urban sprawl in Colombo City is increasing due to centralization of social and economic endeavors. Urban forests and green infrastructure make the city cleaner and healthier to raise the standard of environment quality and aesthetic beauty. This study examines the green urban space in Colombo City using geographic information system and green cover...

Recognition of existing landscape designs, suitable tree species and proper maintenance of trees in an urban landscape is beneficial for planning future green spaces in cities. This study examines site-specific tree crown cover and floristic composition in Viharamahadevi Park, Colombo. The tree cover of the area was determined by digitizing over a...

This study examines visitor information of the IFS-Pophan Arboretum about educational and awareness programs conducted for school children, university students and naturalists from 2007 to 2013. Integrating classroom teaching with field trips is vital for learners to visualize and to understand ecological processes in the nature effectively. IFS-Po...

Future carbon storage in tropical forests will be influenced strongly by species composition. Huge knowledge gap has arisen on how floristic richness correlates or contributes to soil carbon storage. This study examines correlations among floristic parameters, soil carbon and relevant environmental variables. We collected soil data (carbon fraction...

Tropical forest carbon sequestration (CS) has been identified as an important carbon (C) sink necessary for mitigating global warming. Most studies on C budgeting have considered soil organic carbon (SOC) as a whole without taking into account its constituent fractions. The present study assesses uniquely dynamics of SOC fractions, litterfall, abov...

Island ecosystems are becoming more vulnerable to invasive species due to the fragmentation of natural habitats resulting in anthropogenic disturbances. Therefore, understanding the multi-scale impact of invasive species is useful to control their distribution at regional/national levels. This study reviews trajectories of invasive plants in Sri La...

After the Kyoto Protocol, Reducing Emissions on Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) has attempted to mitigate greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries. The most cost effective way of reducing atmospheric CO2 is the increase of biomass carbon sequestration (CS) in tropical forests. Understanding relationships amon...

Understanding the relationship between plant species and biomass carbon accumulation is important to recommend suitable plants for urban forestry and silviculturally managed forests. This study examines plant species composition and their contribution to biomass carbon stocks in three selected forests of lowland dry zone (Sigiriya forest Sanctuary,...

Walawe Left Bank Upgrading and Extension Project has been implemented with the scope of increasing agricultural productivity to enhance villagers’ lifestyle. This study compares the land-use change in the lower Walawe basin between 2001 and 2009 corresponding to before and after the irrigation extension project. The Landsat ETM+ images were acquire...

Understanding how domestic gardens represent green infrastructure and livelihood support is vital for city planners to make pragmatic urban planning. This study examines the status of home gardens in Kaduwela municipal council underlying their role in floristics, ethnobotany and economic values. We adopted semi-structured interviews and home garden...

Understanding spectral properties of plant leaves is useful in detection of seasonal variation of species (a) within a genera, and (b) among genera between families. This study compares spectral reflectance of leaf samples of 20 trees comprising of four genera, namely Acer spp. (six Aceraceae species), Pinus spp. (six Pinaceae species), Fraxinus sp...

Understanding litterfall dynamics of wet/dry zone forests is useful to ascertain the process of carbon sequestration and nutrient cycles. The purpose of this study was to compare seasonal variation of litterfall and floor litter in two-forest sanctuaries viz., Sigiriya (in the dry zone) and Udawattakele (in the wet zone). Litterfall collected in li...

Understanding the effects of human disturbances at the forest fringe is useful in efforts to implement best management practices aimed at conserving forest resources. This study evaluates multi-year changes of vegetation in the Sinharaja Man and the Biosphere (MAB) reserve using mappable vegetation related indices viz., Normalized Difference Vegeta...

Madurapperuma, B.D. and Kuruppuarachchi and K.A.J.M. (2014). Detecting land-cover change using mappable vegetation related indices: A case study from the Sinharaja Man and the Biosphere Reserve. Journal of Tropical Forestry and Environment, 4(1): 50-58.

This study evaluates multi-year changes of vegetation in the Sinharaja Man and the Biosphere (MAB) reserve using mappable vegetation related indices viz., Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Burn Index (BI). Land-cover changes in the Sinharaja MAB reserve were detected using Landsat 7 ETM+ images for 1993, 2001, and 2005. Seven indivi...

This study compares characteristics of reflectance spectra of leaf samples of mixed forest trees in temperate forest. Spectral signatures of native-exotic trees at wavelengths between 350 nm and 2500 nm were acquired using an ASD FieldSpec 4 Hi-Res Spectroradiometer.

This study evaluates multi-year changes of vegetation in the Sinharaja forest reserve using mappable vegetation related indices viz., Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Burn Index (BI). Land-cover changes in the Sinharaja forest reserve region are detected using Landsat 7 ETM+ images for 1993, 2001, and 2005. Seven individual bands o...

Repeated slash and burn cultivation creates wasteland with thorny shrubs, which then takes a long time to become secondary forests through serial stages of succession. Assisted natural regeneration through silvicultural management is a useful restoration method to accelerate succession. This survey evaluates the effectiveness of a simple silvicultu...

Every human being in his day-to-day life is exposed to stressful events. If one’s stress exceeds the tolerability, it may lead to psychological distress. The first-year of the university is the transitional, crucial stage from a mandatory school environment to university. This study is carried out to determine psychological distress and the influen...

EVALUATING TEMPORAL CHANGES OF VEGETATION USING TM DATA AT MIHINTALE DIVISIONAL SECRETARIAT IN SRI LANKA B. D. Madurapperuma1*, K. A. J. M. Kuruppuarachchi2, J. U. Munasinghe3and G. Seneviratne4 North Dakota State University, P. O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108, U.S.A.1,The Open University of Sri Lanka, Nawala, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka2,3,Institute of Funda...

Perceived Distress in College: Problem in Adjustment in a Social and Cultural Context This study examines the psychological distress associated with socio-cultural/economical influences among first-year students of the University of Colombo during the 2009/2010 academic year. A self-administered questionnaire was adopted with two distinctive sectio...

Understanding forest C sequestration (CS) of the tropical region and managing to maximize C retention in biomass and to conserve soil C is important in reducing atmospheric CO2 levels. The associations between traits and ecosystem processes can help to identify the better management strategies for forest CS. The present study investigated the relat...

Long term deposition of atmospheric C as lithosphere formation is known as carbon sequestration (CS), the main remedial measures for global climatic change. Most studies on C budgeting have considered soil organic carbon (SOC) as a whole without taking into account its constituent fractions. In the present study therefore, an attempt was made to un...

Markov chains have been widely used to model land-use/cover changes in both urban and nonurban areas. This study estimates pixel-wise land-use/cover variation in response to forest transition probabilities for McLean County in North Dakota. Grid data from National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS) published by USDA for the years 2006-2012 were...

ArcGIS Explorer Desktop and ArcGIS Explorer Online are useful platforms designed to rapidly create maps for non-GIS professionals. This paper provides an overview of how to use some of these versatile mapping tools to generate and publish maps. In this study, we are utilizing practical examples of watershed related projects in North Dakota. Topics...

Fine roots in forest soils have important implications for global carbon (C) balance, but processes underlying this C sink are not well understood. This study evaluates year round dynamics of fine roots in a tropical dry mixed evergreen forest and an arboretum in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Monthly soil core samples (up to 25 cm depth) were collecte...

Fine roots in forest soils have important implications for global carbon (C) balance, but processes underlying this C sink are not well understood. This study evaluates year round dynamics of fine roots in a tropical dry mixed evergreen forest and an arboretum in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Monthly soil core samples (up to 25 cm depth) were collecte...

Fine roots in forest soils have important implications for global carbon (C) balance, but processes underlying this C sink have not been well understood. This study evaluates year round dynamics of fine roots in a tropical dry mixed evergreen forest and an arboretum in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Monthly soil core samples (up to 25 cm depth) were co...

In Sri Lanka, forest cover is declining at a rate of 1.5%, annually. In order to sustain the forest cover of 29%, reforestation efforts have been undertaken using native or exotic plant species. However, nursery plants face up to 50% failure in establishment in reforestation. Incapability of exotic species to establish in sufficient numbers on degr...

Dambulla is an emerging metro centre, which has been developed into an agro-based trade city centre. Tourism is also demanding since the city has preserved cultural and historical values. Economic growth of the city influenced changing land-cover in large scale over the past decade. This study attempts to evaluate the land-cover (for example vegeta...

Most studies on C budgeting have considered soil organic carbon (SOC) as a whole without taking into account its constituent fractions. Present study reports dynamics of SOC fractions, litterfall, above-belowground C stock and climatic parameters and their control on CS in a dry zone forest (DZF) and a dry zone arboretum (DZA) in the same eco-clima...

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) boosts a wide spectrum of conserving natural resources in a protected area. However, displacement of indigenous communities and demarcation of strict boundaries create an unhealthy relationship between the government and the local community. So we argued that the integrity of local community in the context of...

ABSTRACT Devils Lake is the largest natural lake (9,800 km²) in North Dakota, United States. It is a closed basin lake, which is characterized by saline, hyper-eutrophic, and historic flooding. In this study, we attempt to determine mappable water-related indices vis-à-vis to land-cover data within the Devils Lake sub-watershed region using Landsa...

See the link : DOI: https://doi.org/10.31357/fesympo.v16i0.108 Home / Archives / Vol. 16 (2011): Proceedings of 16th International Forestry and Environment Symposium 2011 / Climate Change Carbon stocks in selected dry and wet zone forests of Sri Lanka Keywords: C stock, Dry zone forest, Biomass Abstract Understanding forest C sequestration of the...

Abstract Understanding forest C sequestration of the tropical region is of paramount importance to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels for mitigating global warming. The present study investigated changes of floristic, soil and climatic parameters and their control on C sequestration in two selected wet and dry zone forests of Sri Lanka. Floristic survey...