Kumari Rajapaksha

Western Sydney University · Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE)

The objective of the study was to identify the potential for soil C sequestration associated with the establishment of a botanical garden in the tropics. Since forest resources are dwindling and home gardens are limited botanical gardens could play a major role in mitigating CO2 in the urban environment. This study determined C sequestration and nu...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key driver of ecosystem functioning, more importantly in the areas with very little stocks. The SOC stocks were mapped in this study using spatial linear mixed models over the Knuckles forest reserve in Sri Lanka using a variety of environmental covariates. The study area consisted of diverse ecosystems ranging from m...

Estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) contents and soil available nutrients in tropical forest ecosystems is important to understand the function of soil in the conservation of ecosystems. This study aimed at estimating the soil organic carbon (SOC) contents among major Vegetation types in the Knuckles Conservation Forest (KCF) and correlating SO...

Botanical gardens are established for the purpose of maintaining documented collections of living plants varieties used for conservation, display, education and scientific research. In addition, botanical gardens have a unique set of resources that are important in climate change mitigation and improving soil organic carbon content in urban soils....

Estimates of soil nutrient availability in tropical land use types are critically important to understand the function of soil in the global nutrient cycles and the· sustainable management of tropical ecosystems. The aim of this study was to quantify and compare the macro and micro nutrient availability in soils in different vegetation types in the...

Estimates and mapping of spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) stores in tropical lancluse types are critical to understand the function of soil in the global carbon cycle and assess its responses to climatic changes. This study aimed at estimating and mapping the spatial variability of soil carbon stocks among major vegetation types in...

Soil C sequestration is a truly win-win strategy clue to its opportunity to earn foreign exchange through C trading at the same time improving the soil quality. This study aimed at investigating the effect of tropical rice based farming systems on soil carbon stocks (SCS) and soil organic matter (SOM) quality in dry zone of Sri Lanka. Rice-Soya (RS...

Carbon sequestration increases soil fertility and reduces global warming by storing atmospheric carbon in soils. This study aimed to quantify and compare soil organic C fractions and C stocks in 4 different rice based cropping systems and investigate their variation as affected by crop rotation with upland crops. Soil nutrient availability and thei...

Carbon can be stored for hundreds to thousands of years in carbon pools through carbon sequestration which is beneficial for reducing global warming. Soil is a significant C pool that absorbs more C than other pools of vegetation, oceans and atmosphere. This study aimed to assess soil carbon sequestration capacity of different landuse types in Knuc...

Carbon sequestration increases soil fertility at the same time reduces global warming by storing atmospheric carbon in soils. This study aimed to investigate the variation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) fractions and carbon stocks as affected by crop rotation with upland crops in tropical rice based cropping systems in Sri Lanka. Total Organic Carbon...

Humic substances are the most important constituents of soil. They form the largest part of soil organic matter, and play a dominant role in improving soil productivity. Humic substances promote plant growth, and improve the organic matter content of soil and soil fertility. The objective of this invtstigation was to extract, quantify and character...

Sequestration of carbon in soil is one of the efficient mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere, and at the same time, it enhances the soil fertility. This research attempted to quantify and compare soil organic carbon fractions and carbon stocks of paddy soils in Polonnaruwa District. Soil nutrient availability and the relationship...

Sri Lanka's first ever dry zone botanical garden was newly opened in Hambantota in 2013 by Department of National Botanical Gardens. The garden has aimed at conserving the existing green patch and biodiversity in the area. It is very important to consider soil carbon storage and soil fertility when conserving the vegetation of the garden. The exist...

The increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and land use change necessitates identification of strategies for adaptation and mitigating the threat of the resultant global warming. The soil carbon (C) sequestration is one such truly win-win strategy. It restores degraded soils, retains plant nutrients in soil longer...

To mitigate the risks of global climate change, many studies are being focused on reducing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. One way of reducing atmospheric CO2 is through increase in the global storage of carbon in soils. Forest soils play an important role as a carbon sink, by absorbing and holding carbon for a long time without releas...

In this study we explore the environmental covariates that are useful in mapping SOC contents in tropical paddy growing soils in Northern Sri Lanka. We carried out digital mapping of SOC contents across the study area using a spatial soil prediction function with auto correlated errors via linear mixed models (LMMs). Two separate LMMs were fitted c...

SIGNATURES OF PRE-2004 INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI EVENTS FROM SRI LANKA

Carbon can be stored in carbon pools for long periods of time through carbon sequestration. Vegetation, soil, ocean and atmosphere are the main sinks for storage of carbon. Among them, soil is a significant C sink that absorbs more C than the others. This study aimed at assessing the potential of soil carbon sequestration in selected landuse types...

Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), a source and a sink for nutrients, plays a vital role in maintaining soil fertility. The amount of carbon (C) stored in soil is strongly influenced by environmental factors through annual C uptake, decomposition and time since disturbance. Increase in atmospheric CO2 can influence C accumulation rates of forests. Soil act...

Increasing population imposes a demand on agricultural output which often leads to degradation of natural resources. Carbon sequestration is a crucial process which increases soil fertility at the mean time reduces global wanning by sequestration of atmospheric carbon in soils. There is a great potential of storing and improving soil carbon in rice...

Understanding the history of coastal systems is important for interpreting the paleo-environments of early human occupation sites, forecasting future environmental conditions and comprehending the impact of abrupt events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Hence, this study aims to reconstruct the Holocene paleo-environmental evolution of southw...

Studying paleo-coastal environmental changes is important to understand thesusceptibility of coastal systems to regional and global climatic and sea levelchanges, as well as to comprehend the impact of rapid abrupt events such as the2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This study aims to reconstruct the Holocene paleo-environental evolution of Ratgama lagoon...