Her interests are broad and include tropical biogeochemistry, as well as the effects of climate change on organisms big and small.
Zelikova is the co-founder of 500 Women Scientists, a global grassroots organizing with the mission to make science open, inclusive, and accessible and to fight racism, patriarchy, and oppressive societal norms.
[9] Her research primarily focuses on understanding the impacts of climate change on ecological systems, and studying the ways that both organisms, plants and biogeochemical cycles respond.
Zelikova and her colleagues found that in a mixed grass prairie the plant community was more stable under increased carbon dioxide conditions.
[13] More recently, Zelikova's research focuses on climate change mitigation, specifically how to promote greater carbon uptake in soil.
They founded this after having concerns about women in STEM and the hateful rhetoric expressed in Trumps campaign, including sexism, disrespect, and attacks on minorities and immigrants.
[15] End of Snow is a short film that follows a number of characters, including a paleoecologist, a rancher, and a man collecting snowfall data in the Southwest as they deal with the impacts of climate change.
[8] Zelikova spent a year and a half working on policy in Washington, D.C., while she was an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow.