Dr Jennifer Mallon

Research Scientist, National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University

David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow

Marine conservation | Ecosystem function | Participatory research

I investigate how environmental change affects marine ecosystems, how ecological recovery can be measured, and how conservation science can become more useful and accessible to those delivering it. My work combines experimental ecology, biogeochemistry, field monitoring, restoration partnerships, and community science across multiple countries and scales.

Bridging ccience and conservation

Conservation frequently measures what is easiest to observe: survival, abundance, or habitat cover. My research asks a deeper question: are ecosystems recovering the biological and biogeochemical processes they need to persist?

I approach this through three connected areas:

Environmental change - how oxygen availability and seawater chemistry affect organisms, ecological interactions, and the processes that sustain marine ecosystems.
Ecosystem function - I measure metabolism, calcification, carbonate production, and accretion to evaluate organsims to ecosystem condition.
Participation and access. I work with communities, practitioners, students, and international collaborators to widen participation through accessible methods and open community-science platforms.

Featured Initiative

Explore Coral Observer

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Coral Observer: widening participation in coral-spawning science

Coral spawning is brief, unpredictable, and difficult for any single research team to observe across the Caribbean. Yet dive professionals, restoration practitioners, community groups, and recreational divers are already present in many of the places where observations are most needed.

I co-founded Coral Observer, an open platform that enables people to record and share observations of coral spawning. Working with international collaborators and the Central Caribbean Coral Spawning Database, we are building a more geographically inclusive picture of when and where corals reproduce.

Coral Observer grew from my experience leading Expedition Akumal, a community-based reef-restoration programme in Mexico. Working with the Coralium Lab at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, I trained local volunteers and secured funding, equipment, and institutional support that enabled Akumal Dive Center to participate in coral-spawning monitoring and restoration for the first time.

Coral Observer represents a central principle of my work: conservation research becomes stronger when the people who live, work, and dive in an ecosystem can help shape and produce knowledge about it.

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About Me

I am a marine conservation scientist interested in how we understand, measure, and support ecological recovery. My research began through community-based reef restoration in Akumal, Mexico, where I became interested in science that is practical, applicable, and accessible.

During my PhD at the University of Glasgow (2018 - 2022), I investigated benthic metabolism across biological scales and helped develop low-cost methods for measuring ecosystem function. Subsequent Smithsonian and Fulbright fellowships allowed me to examine marine deoxygenation and evaluate how restoration affects reef growth and carbonate production.

I am now a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Nova Southeastern University, where I investigate emerging approaches to reef restoration while working with practitioners to consider their feasibility, benefits, and safeguards. Across my work, I combine ecosystem science with accessible methods, collaborative research, and community participation.

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