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Amanda Spivak

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Associate Professor

I am a biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist with a research focus on carbon cycling in coastal environments. My lab group examines processes controlling carbon transformations and fates and how those pathways are changed by natural and anthropogenic stressors. 

Our group is looking a postdoc to join us for a new project focused on redox effects on plant-microbe-mineral interactions in salt marshes! More information here. Applications can be submitted here: https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/357133/ 

And, we are hiring a full-time technician! The ad can be found here and applications can be submitted here: https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/363549.

If you are a UGA undergraduate and interested in conducting research with our lab, complete this application and send it to me.

Ph.D.: Marine Science. 2008. College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA.

A.B.: Biology, Environmental Science concentration, with honors. Minor in English. Magna Cum Laude. 2001. Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA.

Research Interests:

My research group focuses on coastal ecosystem ecology. I seek to develop an integrated understanding of ecological and biogeochemical processes in order to refine the role of estuaries and wetlands in the global carbon cycle and predict the likelihood of recovery from human disturbances. My group uses innovative geochemical tracer approaches, including stable isotopes and lipid biomarkers, in combination with mesocosm and landscape-scale experiments to quantify carbon pathways, transformations, and fate.

Bowen, J.L., A.C. Spivak, A.E. Bernhard, R.W. Fulweiler, A.E. Giblin. In press. Salt marsh nitrogen cycling: Where land meets sea. Trends in Microbiology

Spivak, A.C., A. Pinsonneault, C. Hintz, J. Brandes, J. P. Megonigal. 2023. Ephemeral microbial responses to pulses of bioavailable carbon in oxic and anoxic salt marsh soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2023.109157 

Luk, S.Y., K.M. Gosselin, J. Sanderman, G. Mariotti, M. Eagle, A.C. Spivak. 2023. Peat decomposition and erosion contribute to pond deepening in a temperate salt marsh. JGR: Biogeosciences https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JG007063 

Eagle, M. J., K. D. Kroeger, A. C. Spivak, F. Wang, J. Tang, O. I. Abdul-Aziz, K. S. Ishtiaq, J. O'Keefe Suttles, and A. G. Mann. 2022. Soil carbon consequences of historic hydrologic impairment and recent restoration in coastal wetlands, Sci. Total Environ., 848, 157682, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157682  

Luk, S.Y., K. Todd-Brown, M.E. Gonneea, A.P. McNichol, J. Sanderman, K. Gosselin, and A.C. Spivak. 2021Soil organic carbon development and decay in natural and disturbed salt marsh environments. Geophysical Research Letters https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090287 

Spivak, A.C., K. Gosselin, and S.P. Sylva. 2018. Shallow ponds are biogeochemically distinct habitats in salt marsh ecosystems. Limnology and Oceanography. 63: 1622-1642 10.1002/lno.10797

Spivak, A.C., K. Gosselin, E. Howard, G. Mariotti, I. Forbrich, R. Stanley, and S.P. Sylva. 2017. Shallow ponds are heterogeneous habitats within salt marsh ecosystems. JGR Biogeosciences. 10.1002/2017JG003780

Spivak, A.C. and J. Ossolinski. 2016. Limited effects of nutrient enrichment on bacterial carbon sources in salt marsh tidal creek sediments. Marine Ecology Progress Series 544: 107-130.

Spivak, A.C. and J. Reeve. 2015. Rapid cycling of recently fixed carbon in a Spartina alterniflora system: A stable isotope tracer experiment. Biogeochemistry 125: 97-114. 10.1007/s10533-015-0115-2

Spivak, A.C. 2015. Benthic biogeochemical responses to changing estuary trophic state and nutrient availability: A paired field and mesocosm experiment approach. Limnology and Oceanography. 60(1): 3-21.

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