Lord's research focuses on how the New Zealand fauna have shaped plant flora through pollination and fruit dispersal systems. She has worked particularly on alpine plant communities, but has also published on subantarctic megaherbs, and the use of traditional knowledge of native plants in botany. She is also interested in mycorrhizal flora for ecological restoration, and carbon sequestration by native plants. She is a principal investigator for the 1 Billion Trees project, and is part of the Otago Climate Change Network.
