Nishanta “Nishi” Rajakaruna, Ph.D

Assistant Professor in Plant Biology and Director of the Carl W. Sharsmith Herbarium Department of Biological Sciences San José State University Department of Biological Sciences One Washington Square San José, CA 95192-0100 Duncan Hall, Room 354 Telephone: (408) 924-4834 FAX: (408) 924-4840 E-mail: Nishanta.Rajakaruna@sjsu.edu

Education:

Ph.D. Botany, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada 2002
M.S. Botany, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada 1998
B.A. Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine 1994

Professional Experience:

• Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, San José State University, San José, California 2008-current
• Professor of Botany, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine 2004-2008
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 2003-2004

Courses:

• Plant Biology (Biology 1).

Research:

My primary area of research focuses on the ecology, physiology and evolution of plants growing on extreme soils such as those found on serpentine, limestone, dolomite, and gypsum outcrops, salt and alkaline flats, guano deposits, and heavy metal rich mine tailings.

I am also interested in the effects of heavy metal contamination on plants and other biota, specifically research relating to metal transfer from contaminated soil via plants to other biota. Related areas of research include 1) phytoremediation, the use of plants to clean up metal-contaminated soil, and 2) the impacts of atmospheric deposition of metals and nutrients on native plants.

Additional interests include tropical plant ecology & conservation and ethnobotany.

Publications:

1. Pope, N., Harris, T. B., and N. Rajakaruna. 2010. Vascular plants of adjacent serpentine and granite outcrops on the Deer Isles, Maine, USA. Rhodora 112; in press.



2. R. S. Boyd, A. R. Kruckeberg, and N. Rajakaruna. 2009. Biology of ultramafic rocks and soils: research goals for the future Northeastern Naturalist 16: 422-440.
(PDF)


3. Rajakaruna, N. and R. S. Boyd. 2009. Advances in serpentine geoecology: A retrospective. Northeastern Naturalist 16 (5): 1-7.
(PDF)


4. Rajakaruna, N. 2009. Serpentinophiles from California and across the world gather in Maine to highlight recent research on soil-biota relations of serpentine outcrops. Fremontia 37 (1): 21-24.
(PDF)


5. R. E. O’Dell and N. Rajakaruna. 2010. Intraspecific variation of plant species in serpentine ecosystems: Trends in plant adaptation and evolution. In: Harrison, S. P. and N. Rajakaruna (Eds.). 2010. Serpentine: A model for Evolution and Ecology. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA. In prep.



6. N. Rajakaruna and S. P. Harrison. 2010. Lessons from serpentine about earth history, evolution, and ecology, and implications for conservation and management. In: Harrison, S. P. and N. Rajakaruna (Eds.). pentine: A model for Evolution and Ecology. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA. In prep.



7. Harrison, S. P. and N. Rajakaruna (Eds.). 2010. Serpentine: A model for Evolution and Ecology. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA . In prep.
   
   
8. Rajakaruna, N., and R. S. Boyd (Eds.). 2009. Soil and Biota of Serpentine: A World View. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Serpentine Ecology. Northeastern Naturalist 16 (Special Issue 5).
   
   
9. Harris, T. B. and N. Rajakaruna. 2009. Adiantum viridimontanum, Aspidotis densa, Minuartia marcescens, and Symphyotrichum rhiannon: Additional Serpentine Endemics from Eastern North America. Northeastern Naturalist 16 (5): 111-120.
(PDF)


10. Rajakaruna, N., N. Pope, J. Perez-Orozco, and T. B. Harris. 2009. Ornithocoprophilous Plants of Mount Desert Rock, a Remote  Bird-Nesting Island in the Gulf of Maine, USA (Rhodora 111; in press).
    
    
11. Rajakaruna, N., T. B. Harris, and E. B. Alexander. 2009. Serpentine geoecology of eastern North America: a review. Rhodora 111:21-108. (PDF)
    
    
12. Briscoe, L. R. E., Harris, T. B. Dannenberg, E., Broussard, W., Olday, F. C., and N. Rajakaruna. 2009. Bryophytes of adjacent serpentine and granite outcrops on the Deer Isles, Maine, USA. Rhodora 111:1-20. (PDF)
    
    
13. Rajakaruna, N. and R.S. Boyd. 2008. The edaphic factor. Pp. 1201–1207, In S.E. Jorgensen and B. Fath (Eds.). The Encyclopedia of Ecology. Volume 2. Elsevier, Oxford, United Kingdom. (PDF)
    
    
14. Harris, T. B., Olday, F. C., and N. Rajakaruna. 2007. Lichens of Pine Hill, a peridotite outcrop in Eastern North America. Rhodora 109: 430-447. (PDF)
    
    
15. Vaux, P. D., Nelson, S. J., Rajakaruna, N. Mittelhauser, G., Bell, K., Kopp, B., Peckenham, J. and G. Longsworth. 2006. Assessment of natural resources and watershed conditions in and adjacent to Acadia National Park. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/HTLN/NRTR—2006/001. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. (PDF)
    
    
16. Bohm, B. A. and N. Rajakaruna. 2006. The Lasthenia californica story: It started with flavonoids. Natural Product Communications 11: 1013-1022. (PDF)
    
    
17. Rajakaruna, N., Tompkins, K. M., and P. G. Pavicevic. 2006. Phytoremediation: An affordable green technology for the clean-up of metal contaminated sites in Sri Lanka. Ceylon Journal of Science 35: 25-39. (PDF)
    
    
18. Rajakaruna, N. and J. Whitton. 2004. Trends in the evolution of edaphic specialists with an example of parallel evolution in the Lasthenia californica complex. In: Plant adaptation: Molecular Biology and Ecology, Q.C.B. Cronk, I.E.P. Taylor, R. Ree and J. Whitton (Eds), pp. 103-110. (PDF)
    
    
19. Rajakaruna, N. and A. J. M. Baker. 2004. Serpentine: A model habitat for botanical research in Sri Lanka. Ceylon Journal of Science 32: 1-19. (PDF)
    
    
20. Rajakaruna, N. 2004. The edaphic factor in the origin of species. International Geology Review 46: 471-478. (PDF)
    
    
21. Rajakaruna, N. 2003. Edaphic differentiation in Lasthenia: A model for studies in evolutionary ecology. Madrono 50: 34-40. (PDF)
    
    
22. Rajakaruna, N., Baldwin, B. G., Chan, R., Desrochers, A. M., Bohm, B. A., and J. Whitton. 2003. Edaphic races and phylogenetic taxa in the Lasthenia californica complex (Asteraceae: Heliantheae): An hypothesis of parallel evolution. Molecular Ecology 12: 1675-1679. (PDF)
    
    
23. Rajakaruna, N., Bradfield, G. E., Bohm, B. A., and J. Whitton. 2003. Adaptive differentiation in response to water stress by edaphic races of Lasthenia californica (Asteraceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 164: 371-76. (PDF)
    
    
24. Rajakaruna, N., Siddiqi, M. Y., Whitton, J., Bohm, B. A., and A. D. M. Glass. 2003. Differential responses to Na+/K+ and Ca2+/Mg2+ in two edaphic races of the Lasthenia californica complex (Asteraceae): A case for parallel evolution of physiological traits. New Phytologist 157: 93-103. (PDF)
    
    
25. Rajakaruna, N. and B. A. Bohm. 2002. Serpentine and its vegetation: A preliminary study from Sri Lanka. Journal of Applied Botany 76: 20-28. (PDF)
    
    
26. Rajakaruna, N., Harris, C. S., and G.H.N. Towers. 2002. Antimicrobial activity of plants collected from serpentine outcrops in Sri Lanka. Pharmaceutical Biology 40: 235-244. (PDF)
    
27. Whitton, J. and N. Rajakaruna. 2000. Plant biodiversity - an overview. In: S.L. Levin (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, pp. 621-630. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. (PDF)
    
    
28. Rajakaruna, N. and B.A. Bohm. 1999. The edaphic factor and patterns of variation in Lasthenia californica (Asteraceae). American Journal of Botany 86:1576-1596. (PDF)
    
    
29. Bernston, G.M, Rajakaruna, N., and F.A. Bazzaz. 1998. Growth and nitrogen uptake of an experimental community of annuals exposed to elevated atmospheric CO2. Global Change Biology 4: 607-627. (PDF)

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