Download Current C.V. (Marin-Spiotta CV.pdf)

I am interested in how human transformations of the landscape and climate affect biodiversity and the cycling of elements and nutrients through soils, the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. 

My research interests include:

•Legacies of land-use change on carbon and community dynamics

•New species assemblages effects on ecosystem structure and function

•Mechanisms of soil organic matter stabilization

•Hydrologic controls on carbon and nutrient transport

•Urbanization effects on species and biogeochemistry

•Restoration of ecosystem goods and services

My research integrates field and lab experimental work across different scales, from landscape-level effects of changes in land cover and land use on species composition and carbon pools, to molecular changes in organic chemistry. 

I use stable and radioisotopes, spectroscopic, and analytical techniques to quantify process rates, identify sources and sinks, and better understand underlying mechanisms controlling stabilization and losses of organic matter and elements within and across ecosystems.

Education

Ph.D. 2006. University of California, Berkeley. Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.  Thesis Title: Controls on above and belowground carbon storage during tropical reforestation.
B.S. 1997. Stanford University. Biology, Minor in Political Science   

Research Positions

Research Fellow, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, UC Santa Cruz, 2007-Present

NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Geography, UC Santa Barbara, 2006-Present
Graduate Research Environmental Fellow, Department of Energy Global Change Education Program, 2001-2005
Marvin L.Wesely Distinguished Graduate Research Environmental Fellow Award, 2005

          http://orise.orau.gov/sep/profiles/05marin-spiotta.htm
Graduate Student Researcher, Division of Ecosystem Science, UC Berkeley, 1999-2006
Research Assistant, Tapajós National Forest, Brazil, 1999
Research Assistant, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Woodside, CA, 1996-1998
Research Assistant, Hopkins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, CA, 1996
Research Assistant, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 1994-1999

Publications

Ostertag, R., E. Marín-Spiotta, W.L. Silver, and J. Schulten. Litterfall and decomposition in relation to soil carbon pools along a secondary forest chronosequence in Puerto Rico. Ecosystems (accepted)

Marín-Spiotta, E., C.W. Swanston, W.L. Silver, M.S. Torn and S.D. Burton. 2008. Chemical and mineral control of soil carbon turnover in abandoned tropical pastures. Geoderma 143:49-62. (Marin-Spiotta et al. 2008 Geoderma.pdf)

Marín-Spiotta, E., R. Ostertag, and W.L. Silver. 2007. Long-term patterns in tropical reforestation: plant community composition and aboveground biomass accumulation. Ecological Applications 17:828-839. (Marin-Spiotta et al. 2007 EcoApps.pdf)

Marín-Spiotta, E., W.L. Silver, C.W Swanston, and R. Ostertag. Soil carbon gain and loss during reforestation of tropical pastures. Global Change Biology. (in revision)

Marín-Spiotta, E., D.F. Cusack, R. Ostertag, and W.L. Silver. 2008. Trends in above and belowground carbon with forest regrowth after agricultural abandonment in the Neotropics. Pp. 22-72. In: R. Myster, ed. Post-agricultural Succession in the Neotropics. Springer, New York, NY.

Contributing author to Birdsey, R.A. et al. 2006. Chapter 11. North American Forests. State of the Carbon Cycle Report.  Synthesis and Assessment Report 2.2 of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. (in press)

Silver, W.L., E. Marín-Spiotta, and A. Lugo. 2000. The Caribbean region. In: A.D. Brown and M. Kappelle, eds. Neotropical Montane Cloud Forests. IUCN, Netherlands.

Schneider, S.H. and E. Marín-Spiotta. 1999. Distinguishing fact from value? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14: 205-206.

Marín-Spiotta, E., D.F. Cusack, R. Ostertag, and W.L. Silver. Trends in above and belowground carbon during post-agricultural succession in the tropics. (in preparation for Global Change Biology)

External Links

•Earth Science Women’s Network

1. •  Long-Term Ecological Research Network
   

•Luquillo Experimental Forest

•International Institute for Tropical Forestry

•Organization for Tropical Studies

•Post-doctoral research group

•PhD research group

•DOE Global Change Education Program