Amanda Spivak

Background

About Amanda Spivak

Coastal biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist with expertise in blue carbon sequestration and nature-based climate solutions. I joined UGA as an Associate Professor in 2019 after nearly 8 years as a Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. I lead basic and applied research and co-develop decision support tools with funding from competitive grants from federal, state, and local agencies and organizations.My research focuses on the biogeochemical processes that support coastal ecosystem functioning and sustainability. Elucidating the factors controlling coastal ecosystem functions is critical because these systems provide human societies with economically valuable services and are poorly constrained components of the global carbon cycle. Estuaries and wetlands are biologically, chemically, and physically complex environments and climate change is fundamentally altering how they function and interact with the coastal ocean and atmosphere. I seek to better understand the biogeochemical processes driving carbon transformations and fate in coastal ecosystems as well as how they operate under different environmental conditions and may be leveraged to enhance long-term sequestration in soils. I believe that a mechanistic understanding is essential for refining the role of coastal ecosystems in the global carbon budget and making them an important part of the natural climate solutions portfolio. I apply innovative geochemical tracer approaches to realistic laboratory and field experiments and select study sites that span a range of spatial scales and target gradients of potential controlling factors such as temperature, salinity, tidal range, and biogeographic province. Interdisciplinary collaborations have led to new understanding of coastal wetland evolution, ecological interactions, and microbial dynamics. I work collaboratively with decision makers at local, state, and federal agencies and non-profits to assess wetland sustainability and identify effective management and restoration approaches that lead to efficient carbon burial and delivery of ecosystem services.