Thabonithy Thayalakumaran

Dr Thabonithy Thayalakumaran is an Australian scientist in hydrology. She is a senior research scientist in hydrology at the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI).[1]

Early life and education

Thayalakumaran was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka where she completed her high school. She commenced undergraduate studies at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka however, due to instability in the country she went to India and completed BSc (Hons) in Agriculture from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. In 1989 she returned to Sri Lanka and served as a lecturer in the Department of Soil and Water at the Eastern University.

Due to continued disturbances in the country, Thayalakumaran decided to permanently leave the country and used this opportunity to complete masters in Water Resources Engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok and then was employed as a research assistant at AIT for 3 years. Thayalakumaran's family migrated to New Zealand in 1999 where she completed a PhD at the Massey University[2] with FRST scholarship from the New Zealand Government while based at HortResearch, New Zealand.[3] Later in 2002, her family migrated to Australia and she worked with CSIRO as a research scientist in Land and Water division in Townsville. In 2006, Thayalakumaran joined the Department of Primary Industries in Victoria, Australia.

Current work

Dr Thayalakumaran currently works in the Department of Environment and Primary Industries as a senior research scientist in Hydrology.[4] Her research concentrates on developing approaches to measure whole-of-farm water management in dairy farms to improve farm water performance and associated natural resource impacts. Her research also focuses on developing physically based approaches for estimating root zone soil moisture maps from remotely sensed surface measurements in South West Victoria as well as the characterisation of major sources of uncertainty in hydrological model predictions, particularly runoff and deep percolation from an irrigated catchment in northern Victoria.

Awards

She received a DAAD Scholarship (Germany) in 1993 and ; Foundation for Research Science and Technology scholarship (New Zealand) in 1999.[5]

Research contributions[6]

  • Quantification of Root zone water fluxes in the irrigated landscape of Victoria, Australia
  • Integrated modelling framework for the management of irrigated landscapes-ARC joint research with University of New Castle and University of Adelaide
  • Salinity impacts of water trade in northern Victoria-Murray Darling Basin, Australia
  • Requirement for salt balance in irrigation areas of Shepparton Irrigation Region, Victoria, Australia[7][8]
  • Better management of salinity in irrigation regions and salt loads leaving irrigation regions, North Victoria, Australia[9][10]
  • Geochemistry and the potential for natural denitrification in the lower Burdekin aquifer, Queensland, Australia
  • EDTA enhanced transport of copper from contaminated vineyards and evaluating phyto-remediation as a remediation technique to clean up contaminated soils/saw dust piles in New Zealand.[11][12][13]
  • Water use/nitrogen use efficiency in rice fields under different seeding methods and soil types in Thailand.[14]

Family

Thayalakumaran is married to Dr. Nagalingam Thayalakumaran; they have one child.

Published articles

  • Thayalakumaran T., Lenahan, M.J., Bristow, K.L. 2014. Dissolved organic carbon in groundwater overlain by irrigated surgarcane. Groundwater (in press).
  • Selle, B., Minasny, B., Bethune, M.,Thayalakumaran T., Chandra, S., 2011. Applicability of Richards' equation models to predict deep percolation under surface irrigation. Geoderma 160: 569–578.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/T_Thayalakumaran
  2. ↑ http://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/296/browse?value=Thayalakumaran%2C+Thabonithy&type=author
  3. ↑ http://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/1946
  4. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/T_Thayalakumaran
  5. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/T_Thayalakumaran
  6. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/T_Thayalakumaran
  7. ↑ Thayakalumaran, T., Bethune, M., and McMohan T., 2007 Achieving a salt balance: Should it be a management objective? Agricultural Water Management. 92, 1-12.
  8. ↑ Duncan, R., Bethune, M., Thayakalumaran, T., and McMohan, T., 2008. Management of Salt Mobilisation in the Irrigated Landscape – A Review of Selected Irrigation Regions. Journal of Hydrology. 351, 238-252
  9. ↑ Githui, F., Selle, B.,Thayalakumaran T., 2011. Recharge estimation using remotely-sensed evapotranspiration in an irrigated catchment in south east Australia. Hydrological Processes 26, 1379–1389.
  10. ↑ Selle, B.,Thayalakumaran T., Morris, M., 2010. Understanding salt mobilization from an irrigated catchment in south-eastern Australia. Hydrological Processes 24, 23:3307-3321.
  11. ↑ Vogeler, I., and Thayakalumaran, T., 2005. Transport and reactions of EDTA in soils. In Biogeochemistry of Chelating Agents, ACS Symposium Series Vol 910. Eds. Nowack, B. and J. VanBriesen, American Chemical Society, Washington DC
  12. ↑ Thayalakumaran, T., Vogeler, I., Scotter, D.R., Percival, H.J., Robinson, B.H., and Clothier, B.E. (2003) Leaching of copper from a contaminated soil following the application of EDTA. II. Further experiments and model testing. Australian Journal of Soil Research, 41, 335-350.
  13. ↑ Thayalakumaran, T., Robinson, B.H., Scotter, D. R., Vogeler, I., Clothier, B.E. and Percival, H.J. (2003) Plant uptake and leaching of copper during attempted EDTA-enhanced phytoremediation of repacked and undisturbed contaminated soil. Plant and Soil, 254:415-423
  14. ↑ 14. Murali, N.S., and Thabonithy, R. (1997) Water productivity of irrigated rice under transplanting, wet seeding and dry seeding methods of cultivation. Tropicultura. 15:100-104.
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