abstract: We consider the geometric variational problems of maximizing the first nontrivial Neumann and Steklov eigenvalues of the Laplace-Beltrami operator among subdomains of a Riemannian manifold under a fixed volume constraint. We will mainly be concerned with the corresponding local isoperimetric (or, more precisely, isochoric) profiles. As a corollary of our analysis, we deduce local isoperimetric comparison principles depending only on the scalar curvature.