Erika Marín-Spiotta

Wesely Award Winner Doing the Dirty Work of Science

While some scientists may prefer to conduct research in the pristine environment of the laboratory, others like to get out of the lab and “get their hands dirty.” Environmental scientist Erika Marín-Spiotta has taken that “getting dirty” approach to a whole new level.

In her study of what happens to the environment when abandoned farm lands in tropical climates return to their natural state, Marín-Spiotta, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California-Berkeley, has often found herself neck deep in dirt and mud. She has concentrated her search for soil samples on the island of Puerto Rico where major socio-economic changes in the 1950s caused thousands to trade an agricultural lifestyle for a one-way ticket to urban areas or to the U.S. mainland.  

The dramatic growth of forests on the former farmlands in Puerto Rico has drawn the attention of many scientists; most of whom have focused on the kinds of plants and trees that have reestablished themselves in recent decades. Marín-Spiotta, however, looks beneath the surface where decomposing plants and animals release carbon dioxide into the soil, which is either sequestered in place or released to the atmosphere, potentially contributing to alterations in the region’s climate.

“In the context of climate change, we in the scientific community are trying to better understand the whole carbon cycle. We know much less about the belowground (soil) component of the cycle, basically because we can't see what happens belowground and soils are hard to work with—they're messy, dirty, and need a lot of hard manual labor,” Marín-Spiotta said.

Marín-Spiotta’s dedication to digging for answers to the environmental impact of reforestation helped her win the 2005 Marvin L. Wesely Distinguished Graduate Research Environmental Fellowship presented by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science. As a fellow of the Office of Science’s Global Change Education Program (GCEP), Marín-Spiotta’s exemplary use of DOE research facilities and interactions with mentors contributed to the enhancement of her education and research, and qualified her for the award. The Wesley Fellowship was established to honor the late Dr. Marvin L. Wesely who was a senior meteorologist and scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.

“My mentor, Dr. Margaret Torn, opened her stable isotope natural abundance lab at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to me and has worked closely with me during several stages of my thesis research,” Marín-Spiotta explained. “She also encouraged me to apply for a collaborative grant from Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s (LLNL) Center for Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (CAMS), which I received. The grant and my collaboration with LLNL researcher Dr. Christopher Swanston from CAMS allowed me to run radiocarbon analyses which are very costly.

Drs. Torn and Swanston have both trained me in the interpretation of the radiocarbon analyses, as well as sample preparation. I also established collaboration with Dr. Sarah Burton from the Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab at Pacific Northwest National Lab. Dr. Burton trained me in the use of their nuclear magnetic resonance facility to run my own samples.”

As Marín-Spiotta continues to do the dirty work of carbon cycle studies, she said she hopes her efforts will help provide insight into how human land use changes impact the environment.

“Hopefully my research will help us understand the factors that affect decomposition of soil organic matter with land use change, and my data can be used to construct models to help us better understand the global carbon cycle and how future climatic and human disturbances may affect it.”

For more information about the GCEP program, please visit www.atmos.anl.gov/GCEP/.