[4] Graumlich's work has ranged from an examination of the impact of carbon dioxide on subalpine tree growth[5] to a 1,000 year-old reconstruction of temperature and precipitation for the Sierra Nevada.

[6] Graumlich discovered that between 1000 and 1375 A.D there were consistently high temperatures, one of the important expressions of the so-called Medieval Climate Anomaly in California .

[7] In collaboration with Professor Andrea Lloyd at Middlebury College, Graumlich documented 1000 years of changes in treeline in the Sierra Nevada, noting that the response of high-elevation tree lines to global warming will depend on the water supply.

[8] Together with Professor Andy Bunn from Western Washington University, she was able to refine the critical role of topography in mediating temperature-growth relationships in high elevation forests.

Reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary research and learning, Graumlich was named the inaugural director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at The University of Arizona.

[4][17] She continued to focus on the impacts of severe and persistent droughts in the Western US, including studies large scale tree mortality.

[22][4] She presented evidence from tree ring data that demonstrated that in the late 20th century the world was the warmest it had been for the past 1000 years.

[23] She served on the Lord Oxburgh inquiry panel that studied the Climatic Research Unit email controversy with the University of East Anglia.

At the University of Washington she works with the President's Race and Equity Initiative to improve academic culture and to combat the racism and inequities, both individual and institutional, that persist in academia and throughout our society.