Nimanthika Wijeratne

University of Ruhuna · Department of Botany

Kalametiya Lagoon, a highly threatened Sri Lankan wetland, has undergone drastic hydrological changes in recent decades, due to an upstream irrigation project. These changes led to the invasion of the lagoon water by monospecific Sonneratia caseolaris mangrove stands and Typha angustifolia reedbeds. As Kalametiya has been a nationally recognized bi...

As a tropical island nation, Sri Lanka has a 1740 km coastal strip, dominated by mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows i.e., blue carbon ecosystems, that play a vital role in ecosystem functioning and services. These ecosystems have a high capacity for storing carbon within their ecosystem pools by capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)...

Lichenology has received much attention in recent decades due to two major reasons; functioning as bio-indicators and having chemicals with industrial significance. However, Manglicolous lichens (i.e., mangroves lichens) have not yet been extensively studied compared to other terrestrial lichens, particularly in Sri Lanka. Hence, this study was aim...

Carbon that is stored and sequestered in marine coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows is termed as Blue Carbon, which plays an important role in the global carbon cycle and climate change mitigation. It has long been known that mangroves which are confined to tropical and subtropical latitudes, have higher rates o...

Walawe river, which is located in Ambalantota, belonging to dry zone of Sri Lanka is highly exploited for domestic and irrigation purposes. Seawater intrusion in the river adversely affect the livelihood of bordering communities by hindering freshwater availability and salinization of agricultural lands. Present study determined the level of salini...