› › Stefania Mambelli

Stefania Mambelli

Lab Scientist

Department of Integrative Biology
Center for Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry
Office: 1140 Valley Life Science Building
Phone: (510) – 6431748
Fax: (510) – 6431749
email: mambelli@berkeley.edu

Education
• Ph.D. Plant Sciences, 1986-1990, University of Bologna, Italy.
• B.S. Plant Biology, 1983, University of Bologna, Italy.

Experience
• January 2000 to present – Specialist, Department of Integrative Biology and Center for Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry, University of California at Berkeley.
• January 2001 to present – Lecturer, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California at Berkeley
• 1999 – Visiting Scientist, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
• 1992-1998 – Faculty, Department of Agricultural, Environment and Food Science and Technology, University of Bologna, Italy. I was involved in research focused on physiological responses of crop species to water stress and nutrients. I also designed and taught the graduate course “Physiology of crop plants” for the Plant Biotechnology Program, University of Bologna, Italy, in 1997-1999.
• 1993, 1996, 1997 – NATO and Italian Research Council Fellow, Department of Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. In collaboration with Prof. T.L. Setter, I was involved in a project aimed to understand the cellular and physiological bases for altered reproductive growth in plants subjected to water deficit. In particular, I studied the role of the hormone abscisic acid in the inhibition of cell division in developing maize endosperm.

Specialist position
As an associate scientist and member of the Center for Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry, University of California at Berkeley, I am responsible for tutoring and training graduate and undergraduate students in Biology, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Archeology on aspects of stable isotope techniques and use of stable isotope mass spectrometry. I am also involved in lab management and operations, scheduling sample analysis, sample analysis by Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), water sample analysis by Isotope Ratio Infrared Spectroscopy IRIS), maintenance of analytical instrumentation,  and data processing.

Lecturer position
Co-instructor of regular courses taught at UC Berkeley (2001 -2021).

  • Every Fall: Graduate course Integrative Biology IB c226, Seminar in IsoTopics.
  • Every other Spring Semester starting Spring 2012. Graduate course IB c227, Stable Isotope Ecology, Laboratory.
  • Every other Spring Semester from 2006 to 2010. Graduate course IB c227, Isotope Biogeochemistry, Laboratory.
  • During Fall 2001, 2002 and 2003 I also designed and taught the graduate course IB 256, Methods in Ecology and Environmental Biology.

 

Recent publications:

McFarlane, K.S., Mambelli S., Porras R.C., Wiedemeier D.B., Murphy L., Orans K., Dawson T.E., Torn M. S. Soil carbon stocks are not linked to aboveground litter input and chemistry in old-growth coast redwood forest and adjacent prairie. RadioCarbon (accepted – in print).

Roddy, A., Guilliams M., Fine P., Mambelli S., Dawson T.E., Simonin K.. Flowers are leakier than leaves but cheaper to build. 2023. New Phytol, 239: 2076-2082. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19104

Kakouridis A., Hagen J.A., Kan M.P., Mambelli S., Feldman L.J., Herman D.J., Weber P.K., Pett-Ridge J., Firestone M.K. 2022. Routes to roots: direct evidence of water transport by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to host plants. New Phytol 236:210-221. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18281

Wommack E.A., Marrack L.C., Mambelli S., Hull J.M., Dawson T.E. 2020. Using oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes to track the migratory movement of Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) along Western Flyways of North America. PLoS ONE 15(11): e0226318. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226318

Niespolo E.M., Sharp W.D., Tryon C.A., Faith J.T., Lewis J., Ranhorn K., Mambelli S., Miller M.J., Dawson T.E. 2020. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes of ostrich eggshells provide site-scale Pleistocene-Holocene paleoenvironmental records for eastern African archaeological sites. Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 230, 106142.

Mambelli S., Brooks P.D., Sutka R., Hughes S., Finstad K., Nelson J.P. Dawson T.E. 2016. High throughput method for simultaneous analysis of N, C and S stable isotopes and contents in organics and soils. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 30, 1743–1753.

Professional Memberships:
Ecological Society of America, American Geophysical Union, California Botanical Society.