Wall began work as a postdoctoral researcher at University of California-Riverside in 1972 where she researched the function and biological diversity of soil ecosystems.[8] In 1976 she began work in the Department of Nematology as an Assistant Research Nematologist. She continued to work at UC Riverside for a further seventeen years before becoming a Professor in the Department of Nematology. Throughout this period, she was the Associate Director of the Drylands Research Institute from 1986 to 1988 and the Associate Program Director of the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC, from 1988 to 1989.[9]
Wall began working at Colorado State University in 1993. At this time, she became a Professor in the Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship (until 2006), the Associate Dean for Research in the Natural Resources College (until 2000) and the Director of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (until 2005).[8] Wall became a Professor in the Department of Biology at CSU in 2006 and was key in establishing the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at CSU in 2008.[10]
Wall began working in Antarctica's Dry Valleys in 1989.[11] She conducted long-term soil ecology research in the region, drawing links between soil process and diversity to environmental conditions. Wall played a key role in pioneering the study and measurement of anhydrobiosis, which is how nematodes cope physiologically with dry and hot temperatures.[12] She described invertebrate soil communities in the Dry Valleys of Victoria Land and devised some of the first models of habitat suitability for specific invertebrate species in the Dry Valleys, which increased our understanding of their susceptibility to environmental change and their roles in biogeochemical processes.[13][12]
Wall was named a Fellow of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program in 1999. She was selected as the 2012 Tansley Lecturer of the British Ecological Society.[3][20]
Wall chaired the DIVERSITAS-International Biodiversity Observation (2001–2002) and the Global Litter Invertebrate Decomposition Experiment.[26] She also co-chaired the Millennium Development Goals Committee of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the AAAS panel for the What We Know initiative from 2013 to 2014.[27] Wall was a member of one of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) working groups and a member of the UNESCO International Hydrological Program US National Committee. She was a board member of the Island Press and the World Resources Institute.[22]
^ ab"Tansley Lecture". www.britishecologicalsociety.org. British Ecological Society. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
^"Wall Valley, Antarctica information". Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Lab. Department of Biology at Colorado State University. Archived from the original(web.archive.org) on July 2, 2019. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
^"Antarctica Detail: Antarctica ID: 18663". U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original(web.archive.org) on June 2, 2021. An upland valley next E of Priscu Valley in Olympus Range; Minotaur Pass is at the head between Apollo Peak and Mount Electra. The valley opens N to McKelvey Valley. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) (2004) after Diana Wall, Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO; U.S. Antarctic Project (USAP) soils biologist in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, 13 field seasons, 1989–2002.