[11][12] Marín-Spiotta focuses on the ways in which both human-caused land use and climate changes affect biodiversity, biomass, and the biogeochemistry of the atmosphere, water, and soil, in particular as related to terrestrial carbon cycling.

[1][10][13] Her research offers insight into a variety of fields and the intersections between them, including soil science, biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, and geography.

[14] Specifically, much of her research looks at these impacts in tropical ecosystems and the strength and ability of forests in different stages of succession to store and sequester carbon.

[15] More recently, Marín-Spiotta has conducted research about paleosols and how the carbon stored in these soils could be a potential driver of climate change in the future.

She was the Secretary of the Biogeosciences section at the American Geophysical Union in 2015 and 2016 and has held various other leadership and volunteer positions for the AGU.