Lyons and his research group currently conduct research on four specific topics: 1. the biogeochemistry of Antarctic terrestrial/aquatic ecosystems and how they response to climate change, 2. the interactions and rates of chemical weathering, erosion/sediment transport and carbon dynamics, especially in small, mountainous watersheds, 3. the impact of urbanization, suburbanization and agricultural activities on water quality, and 4. the geochemical dynamics of carbon in agricultural landscapes. He is a Fellow of GSA, AAAS and AGU. He recently stepped down as the lead investigator of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program, one of the two Antarctic LTER sites funded by the National Science Foundation. He is a US representative on the Geosciences Scientific Group of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), and a former Director of the Byrd Polar Research Center at OSU. He is an associate editor for Chemical Geology and Applied Geochemistry, and a member of AGU's Book Board.