Mark Hixon
Sidney & Erica Hsiao Endowed Professor of Marine Biology,
Chair of Zoology Graduate Program
Marine ecology and conservation biology, especially regarding coral reefs
Website(s):
Visit Dr. Hixon's professional web page.
View Dr. Hixon's thoughts on saving coral reefs with "Pride of Maui"
Hear Dr. Hixon on Hawai'i Public Radio about "Science in a Post-Truth World"
Hear Dr. Hixon on Hawai'i Public Radio about "Art/Sci: Where Art and Science Meet"
View Dr. Hixon's interview on ThinkTech Hawai'i TV.
View Dr. Hixon's TED talk about coral reef conservation.
View Dr. Hixon's TED talk about the lionfish invation.
View Dr. Hixon's appearence on the PBS TV show "Saving the Ocean"
Academic Degrees
BA 1973, MA 1974, PhD 1979 University of California at Santa Barbara
Awards & Honors
In 2004, Mark was honored by ISI Citation Index as the most cited scientific author in the Northern and Western Hemispheres regarding coral reef ecology during the past decade. In 2016, he was honored as a Fellow of the International Coral Reef Society. A Fulbright Senior Scholar and Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellow, Mark serves as a subject-matter editor for the scientific journals Ecology and Ecological Monographs and as an ad hoc editor for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He has also served on the editorial boards of Coastal Management, Coral Reefs, and PeerJ. Mark was an executive appointee of both the Clinton and Bush administrations to the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee, which he chaired for 3 years. He has also served on the National Science Foundation Geosciences Advisory Committee as chair of the ocean science subcommittee. Regularly involved in scientific outreach, Mark has on-line TEDx talks and has appeared on the PBS TV show Saving the Ocean.
Research Interests
Mark started his position as the Sidney and Erica Hsiao Endowed Chair in Marine Biology in January 2013. He originally began his research on the ecology of coral reefs as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawai`i from 1979 to 1981. After another postdoc at U.C. Irvine, he was a professor of marine ecology and conservation biology at Oregon State University from 1984 through 2012. Mark’s research spans the behavioral, population, and community ecology of coastal marine fishes, increasingly in the context of conservation biology, and occasionally fisheries ecology. His projects emphasize undersea research, especially involving controlled field experiments. Mark has published numerous peer-reviewed research papers on field projects in California, Oregon, Hawai`i, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, the Great Barrier Reef, and French Polynesia, including top ranked journals such as Science and the Proceedings of the Naitonal Academy of Sciences. His research has helped to clarify mechanisms that naturally regulate populations and sustain biodiversity in the sea, topics of vital importance to managing fisheries and conserving species. Projects in Hawai'i include linking local ecology to larval dispersal of reef fishes (marine metacommunity ecology), as well as documenting the interactions among physical shelter for fishes, reef fish abundances, and the structure of reef benthic communities (coral reef ecological resilience). In 2016, Mark co-organized a joint exhibit by scientists and artists at the Honolulu Art Museum: ArtSci: Where Art and Science Meet.
Selected Publications
Notes:
- As a policy Dr. Hixon does not tack is name onto his students' publications.
- To hear Dr. Hixon's 2009 audio essay on National Public Radio on the untimely death of a coral reef, please click here (4 min).
- To download publications from Dr. Hixon's lab about the lionfish invasion, please click here. For a profile of that research, please click here.
- To download Dr. Hixon's papers published prior to 2013, please click here.
Dr. Hixon's publications since arriving at UH in 2013:
Albins, M.A., and M.A. Hixon. 2013. Worst case scenario: potential long-term effects of invasive predatory lionfish (Pterois volitans) on Atlantic and Caribbean coral-reef communities. Environmental Biology of Fishes 96: 1151-1157. DOWNLOAD
Carr, M.H., D.P. Malone, M.A. Hixon, S.J. Holbrook, and R.J. Schmitt. 2013. How SCUBA changed our understanding of nature: underwater breakthroughs in reef fish ecology. Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences 39: 157-167. DOWNLOAD
Côté, I.M., S.J. Green, and M.A. Hixon. 2013. Predatory fish invaders: insights from Indo-Pacific lionfish in the western Atlantic and Caribbean. Biological Conservation 164: 50-61. [“Editor’s Choice” for free downloading] DOWNLOAD
Christie, M.R., and M.A. Hixon. 2014. Patterns of reef-fish larval dispersal in Exuma Sound, Bahamas. Pages 225-227 in G.C. Ray and J. McCormick-Ray. Marine Conservation: Science, Policy, and Management. Wiley-Blackwell; West Sussex, UK. DOWNLOAD
Cure, K., J.L. McIlwain, and M.A. Hixon. 2014. Habitat plasticity in native Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans) facilitates successful invasion of the Atlantic. Marine Ecology Progress Series 506: 243-253. DOWNLOAD
Hixon, M.A. 2014. How do so many kinds of coral-reef fishes coexist? Pages 109-110 in G.C. Ray and J. McCormick-Ray. Marine Conservation: Science, Policy, and Management. Wiley-Blackwell; West Sussex, UK. DOWNLOAD
Hixon, M.A., and M.A. Albins. 2014. Invasion of Bahamian coral reefs by predatory Pacific red lionfish. Pages 215-218 in G.C. Ray and J. McCormick-Ray. Marine Conservation: Science, Policy, and Management. Wiley-Blackwell; West Sussex, UK. DOWNLOAD
Hixon, M.A., D.W. Johnson, and S.M. Sogard. 2014. BOFFFs: on the importance of conserving old-growth age structure in fishery populations. ICES Journal of Marine Science 71: 2171-2185. [invited contribution to special issue on 100th anniversary of Hjort 2014] DOWNLOAD UH News
Pusack, T.J., M.R. Christie, D.W. Johnson, C.D. Stallings, and M.A. Hixon. 2014. Spatial and temporal patterns of larval dispersal in a coral-reef fish metapopulation: evidence of variable reproductive success. Molecular Ecology 23: 3396-3408. DOWNLOAD
Schimel, D., D.R. Strong, and ca.100 co-authors. 2014. Editors are editors, not oracles. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 95:342-346. DOWNLOAD
Sikkel, P.C., L.J. Tuttle, K. Cure, A.M. Coile, and M.A. Hixon. 2014. Low susceptibility of invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans) to a generalist ectoparasite in both its introduced and native ranges. PLoS One 9(5): e95854. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095854. DOWNLOAD
Hixon, M.A. 2015. Predation: piscivory and the ecology of coral-reef fishes. Pages 41-52 in C. Mora (ed.) Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK. DOWNLOAD
Hixon, M.A. 2015. Reef fishes, seaweeds, and corals: a complex triangle. Pages 195-215 in C. Birkeland (ed.) Coral Reefs in the Anthropocene. Springer Science; New York, New York. DOWNLOAD
Johnson, D.W., M.R. Christie, C.D. Stallings, T.J. Pusack, and M.A. Hixon. 2015. Using post-settlement demography to estimate larval survivorship: a coral reef fish example. Oecologia 179:729-739. DOWNLOAD
Ramos-Ascherl, Z., E.H. Williams, L. Bunkley-Williams, L.J. Tuttle, P.C. Sikkel, and M.A. Hixon. 2015. Parasitism in Pterois volitans (Scorpaenidae) from coastal waters of Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. Journal of Parasitology 101:50-56. DOWNLOAD
Sale, P.F., and M.A. Hixon. 2015. Addressing the global decline in coral reefs and forthcoming impacts on fishery yields. Pages 7-15 in S.A. Bortone (ed.) Interrelationships Between Corals and Fisheries. CRC Press; Boca Raton, Florida. DOWNLOAD
Wilcox, C.L., and M.A. Hixon. 2015. False positive tests for ciguatera may derail efforts to control invasive lionfish. Environmental Biology of Fishes 98:961-969. DOWNLOAD UH News
Dahlgren, C.P., K. Buch, E. Rechisky, and M.A. Hixon. 2016. Multiyear tracking of Nassau Grouper spawning migrations. Marine and Coastal Fisheries 8:522-535. DOWNLOAD
Hixon, M.A., S.J. Green, M.A. Albins, J.L. Akins, and J.A. Morris. 2016. Lionfish: a major marine invasion. Marine Ecology Progress Series 558:161-165. DOWNLOAD
Benkwitt, C.E., M.A. Albins, K.L. Buch, K.E. Ingeman, T.L. Kindinger, T.J. Pusack, C.D. Stallings, and M.A. Hixon. 2017. Is the lionfish invasion waning? Evidence from the Bahamas. Coral Reefs 36:1255-1261. DOWNLOAD
Ingeman, K.E., M.A. Albins, C.E. Benkwitt, S.J. Green, T.L. Kindinger, L.J. Tuttle, and M.A. Hixon. 2017. Resolving differences in observed impacts of invasive lionfish and clarifying advice to managers. PeerJ Preprints doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3455v1 [not peer reviewed]
Ripple, W.J., with 15,371 co-authors including M.A. Hixon. 2017. World scientists’ warning to humanity: a second notice. BioScience 67:1026-1028. DOWNLOAD UH News
Tuttle, L.J., P.C. Sikkel, K. Cure, and M.A. Hixon. 2017. Parasite-mediated enemy release and low biotic resistance may facilitate invasion of Atlantic coral reefs by Pacific red lionfish (Pterois volitans). Biological Invasions 19:563-575. DOWNLOAD
Counsell, C.W.W., M.J. Donohue, K.F. Edwards, E.C. Franklin, and M.A. Hixon. 2018. Variation in coral-associated cryptofauna communities across spatial scales and environmental gradients. Coral Reefs 37:827-840. DOWNLOAD
Forsman, Z.H., R.J. Toonen, R.D. Gates, E.C. Franklin, I.S.S. Knapp, K. Rodgers, K. Hughes, P. Maurin, C. Sartor, M. Parry, A. Chung, M.A. Hixon, D.A. Gulko, C.S. Wolke, N.T. Chan, and L. Del Rio Torres. 2018. The first Hawai‘i workshop for coral restoration and nurseries. Marine Policy 96:133-135. DOWNLOAD
Johnson, D.W., M.R. Christie, T.J. Pusack, C.D. Stallings, and M.A. Hixon. 2018. Integrating parentage analysis with local population demography uncovers cryptic patterns of connectivity in a marine metapopulation. Ecology 99:1419-1429. DOWNLOAD UH News
Wong-Ala, J.A.T.K., C.M. Comfort, J.M. Gove, M.A. Hixon, M.A. McManus, B.S. Powell, J.L. Whitney. and A.B. Neuheimer. 2018. How life history characteristics and environmental forcing shape settlement success of coral reef fishes. Frontiers in Marine Science 5(65): doi: 10.3389/fmars.2018.00065. DOWNLOAD
Chung, A.E., L.M. Wedding, A.L. Green, A.M. Friedlander, G. Goldberg, A. Meadows, and M.A. Hixon. 2019. Building coral reef resilience through spatial herbivore management in Hawai‘i. Frontiers in Marine Science 6(98): doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00098. DOWNLOAD
Green, S.J., E.R. Dilley, C.E. Benkwitt, A.C.D. Davis, K.E. Ingeman, T.L. Kindinger, L.J. Tuttle, and M.A. Hixon. 2019. Trait-mediated foraging drives patterns of selective predation by native and invasive coral-reef fishes. Ecosphere 10(6):e02752. DOWNLOAD
Hixon, M.A., and J.E. Randall. 2019. Coral reef fishes. Pages 142-150 in J.K. Cochran, H.J. Bokuniewicz, and P.L. Yager (eds.) Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences. 3rd edition, vol. 2. Elsevier Press; Oxford, United Kingdom. DOWNLOAD
[last updated 6/4/19]
Hixon Lab Graduate Students:
Erik Brush, NSF Graduate Research Fellow (PhD Zoology, entered 2015)
Eric Dilley (MS Marine Biology, entered 2015)
Ryan Jones, NSF Graduate Research Fellow (PhD Zoology, entered 2016)
Standing on the shoulders of giants: Kaneohe, HI, December 2017:
back row: Mark Hixon, Ryan Jones, Erik Brush, Eric Dilley
front row: Jack Randall, Peter Sale
Hixon Lab at Oregon State University (2012):
L to R (with current affiliation): Dr. Stephanie Green* (University of Alberta), Dr. Kurt Ingeman** (U.C. Santa Barbara), Dr. Tim Pusack (Williams College), Dr. Lillian Tuttle** (University of Hawaii at Manoa), Alex Davis** (University of Alberta), Dr. Casey Benkwitt** (Lancaster University), Dr. Tye Kindinger** (NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program, Honolulu). OSU titles: * Smith Postdoctoral Fellow, ** National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. For a profile of this cohort's lionfish invasion research, please click here.