Suranjan Fernando

Sri Lanka is a top plastic beaching island in the Indian Ocean. This study investigated plastic waste management in the Sri Lankan coastal zone in three stages. A database of policy and institutional management structures was constructed in MS Excel and examined to connect laws and responsible institutions. A literature survey of marine pollution r...

This publication studies the potential impact of climate change on Sri Lanka's vulnerable mountain ecosystem to help guide sustainable adaptation strategies.

In 2017, Sri Lanka set a goal to increase its forest cover to 32% by 2030 (Sri Lanka UN‐REDD, 2017). However, on November 4th 2020, the government published circular MWFC/1/2020 revoking the circular 5/2001 of August 10th 2001, one of the country's most crucial forest protection directives. The revocation of the 5/2001 circular could severely hampe...

The Sri Lankan Moist Forests ecoregion represents the moist forests of southwest and central Sri Lanka that harbors exceptional endemism, including unique higher taxa. Imperilment of the ecoregion began two centuries ago, when the British colonial government began large-scale forest clearing for commodity crops; first coffee and then tea. Forest cl...

Sri Lanka’s location, historic and geologic isolation from the continental landmass, topography and climate act to shape its biogeography and biodiversity, including conferring a remarkably high level of endemism, given its close proximity to the mainland. The island hosts several ‘point endemic1 species and even monotypic endemic genera. However t...

Sri Lankan montane forests represented by the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka can be undoubtedly considered as a super-hotspot within the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. This study aims to bringforth a justification for the floristic relationships among tree communities and to test the tree species similarity among altitudes in fou...

Using a complete inventory method to analyze the species distribution of a rainforest is a daunting task due to the extensive area to be sampled. The answer for this problem is to find the most suitable sampling plot size, which realistically represents the entire species population distribution. In this study, optimal plot size, which contains the...

Advances in forest carbon mapping have the potential to greatly reduce uncertainties in the global carbon budget and to facilitate effective emissions mitigation strategies such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Though broad-scale mapping is based primarily on remote sensing data, the accuracy of resulting for...

Termites play an important role in tropical forests, as decomposers of plant matter and mediators of soil nutrient recycling. Many factors contribute to their distribution. In this study, influence of altitude on termite distribution was assessed in several forest types in Kandy and Knuckles regions.Termites were sampled using the belt transect (2...

Advances in forest carbon mapping have the potential to greatly reduce uncertainties in the global carbon budget and to facilitate effective emissions mitigation strategies such as REDD+. Though broad scale mapping is based primarily on remote sensing data, the accuracy of resulting forest carbon stock estimates depends critically on the quality of...

This study was conducted in the Knuckles Forest Region in central Sri Lanka, and investigated how termite species richness, abundance and functional group diversity vary in different montane forest types and identified the likely causes of this pattern. Termite diversity declined with increased elevation, with upper montane forests recording a sing...

A new species of rock dwelling gecko belonging to the genus Cnemaspis is described from Sri Lanka based on a suite of morphological features. The species is the largest of its genus described from Sri Lanka so far (snout-vent length 52-54 mm) and is the second largest of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot. It may be diagnosed in detai...

Title: Sustenance of forest dependent livelihoods of local communities in a changing and variable climate: Integrating local knowledge for adaptation options L. D. C. B. Kekulandala1, R. H. S. S. Fernando2 1 Practical Action, Sri Lanka, No 05, Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka 2 Centre for Applied Biodiversity Research Forest depen...

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were used to investigate the relationships among Polystachya accessions from a group of closely related pantropical tetraploids. Before starting with the fingerprinting analyses, the polyploid accessions were first included in a phylogenetic analysis using low-copy nuclear DNA data to establish...

Phalaenopsis mysorensis Saldanha, an orchid species endemic to South India has recently been recorded in Sri Lanka from a few isolated hill forests in the northern and eastern dry lowlands. The minute habit, small white flowers and short unbranched peduncle distinguishes P. mysorensis from its congener P. deliciosa, the only recorded Phalaenopsis i...

A general description of Sri Lanka and its bioclimatic zones are presented. The history of the Island's orchid taxonomy is briefly reviewed. An updated checklist is presented for the country's orchid flora using recent information. New species, new records and nomenclatural changes from previous lists are annotated with appropriate references. This...

The paper describes a new frog of the genus Nannophrys from Sri Lanka. The new species is distinguished from all other Nannophrys species by the following combination of morphological characters; distal subarticular tubercle and penulti-mate subarticular tubercles of 4 th toe are well separated (vs. these two tubercles close in all other species of...

The paper describes a new frog of the genus Nannophrys from Sri Lanka. The new species is distinguished from all other Nannophrys species by the following combination of morphological characters; distal subarticular tubercle and penultimate subarticular tubercles of 4th toe are well separated (vs. these two tubercles close in all other species of t...

Fernando, Samantha Suranjan, Wickramasingha, Mendis, Rodirigo, Roshan K. (2007): A new species of endemic frog belonging to genus Nannophrys Günther, 1869 (Anura: Dicroglossinae) from Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 1403: 55-68, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.175474

A study was carried out in Sri Lankan south western lowland tropical rain forests to obtain background information support decision making in sustainable extraction of NTFP. The research sites were located in Dipterocarp dominant forests within Kanneliya (6010' N- 6018 N’ and 80019' E - 80026' E) and Sinharaja (6021'N-6026'N and 80021' E - 80034’ E...

A preliminary survey was carried out to investigate the status of animal mortality due to electrocution.The survey was conducted in selected Districts (Colombo, Gampaha, Puttalam, Rathnapura, Galle and Hambanthota), covering all climatic zones of Sri Lanka between December, 2003 to January 2004. Field observations during the above period were suppl...

This guide seeks to provide an easy-to-use reference for identifying the native orchid species whose collection and trade are currently regulated by law in Sri Lanka. The dearth of such reference material is an impediment to the enforcement of the laws that regulate the collection of and trade in such species in Sri Lanka, particularly due to the d...

Investigations on the fauna of Sinharaja spanning the past four years have enabled to document a total of 319 vertebrate species, representing 50% of the native inland vertebrate fauna of Sri Lanka. About 30% (97 species) of the native vertebrate species in Sinharaja are endemic to Sri Lanka, while about 35% (112 species) are nationally threatened....

Sri Lanka has a wide array of inland and coastal wetland ecosystems that harbor a rich biological diversity. One such urban wetland in Sri Lanka is Muthurajawela, the largest coastal peat bog of the island located on the West coast. At present, the biodiversity of Muthurajawela is threatened by unplanned development activities and a growing human p...

The Maduganga estuary and mangrove islets is a complex coastal wetland ecosystem situated within the two Divisional Secretariats of Balapaitiya and Karandeniya in the Galle District of Southern Sri Lanka. The total area of the estuary is 915 ha, of which 770 ha consist of open water, while islands account for 145 ha. With the view of safeguarding t...