As a research associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, she was the project co-leader on a joint U.S.-Russian study of ecosystems in the Bering and Chukchi seas and an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation.
[3] Following this, she served as part of a team studying the relationship between plankton in the ocean surrounding Antarctica and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
[6] Grebmeier was appointed a research professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, working in the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, in 2008.
[10] The following year, she won the 2016 President's Award for Excellence in Application of Science for her "exceptional and sustained contributions to the understanding of the Arctic.
[12] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Grebmeier raised the alarm on the rising disappearing Alaskan sea ice and its significant impact on the Arctic marine ecosystem.