Natalia is a Senior researcher at Laboratory of Ornithology at the Centre of biodiversity of The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. She has been studying migration strategy and breeding ecology of waders for almost 20 years. She is a member of International Wader Study Group since 2002 and a member of Working Group on Waders of Northern Eurasia. She wrote her PhD about Ruff migration strategy in Eastern Europe in 2007. Natalia is one of the founders of Turov Ringing Station and works here as a ringer since 2000. Here she is doing long-term research of waders at the Pripyat River floodplain meadows with particular interest in migratory strategies and breeding ecology.

Also Natalia takes part in different educational and wetland conservation projects, such as <florafauna.by> and The LIFE MagniDucatusAcrola project that aims to restore degraded habitats of the Aquatic warbler in Lithuania and Belarus and carry out the translocation of this species. Dr Karlionova provides scientific guidance to undergraduates and graduate students.