Sherilyn Fritz is known for her research on paleoclimate and paleoecology, with a particular focus on the use of diatoms to reconstruct past environmental conditions.
[1] In 2020, Fritz was named a fellow of the American Geophyiscal Union and the citation reads[4] For contributions in paleolimnology and paleoclimatology, shaping our understanding of the sensitivity of lake systems worldwide to environmental changeFritz is known for her research on historical climatology, specifically using the distribution of diatoms in lake and marine sediments to infer past and present environmental conditions.
[8][9][10] This research spans a wide geographical range from across the North America Great Plains, where her research has reconstructed the regional shifts in rainfall[11][12][13] and climate[14][15] and has revealed historically high frequencies of drought in the region compared to the present conditions.
Fritz has also examined vegetation and climate in southern Italy,[16] Yellowstone,[17] and Glacier Bay, Alaska.
[18][19] In South America, her research has looked at changes in precipitation,[20][21][22] temperature, [23] glaciation,[24][25] and climate variation in the Quaternary period.