His fields of interest include: structure and dynamics of marine meta-ecosystems, responses of coastal ecosystems to climate change, linking benthic and inner shelf pelagic communities, the relationship between scale and ecosystem dynamics, bottom-up and top-down control of community structure, recruitment dynamics, ecophysiology and sub-organismal mechanisms in environmental stress models, larval transport and connectivity, impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems, controls of productivity, population, community, and geographical ecology.
His visiting professorships have taken him to Guam, Sweden, Quebec, Chile, Jamaica, New Zealand and Panama, where he has been an associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute since 1978.
Menge serves on the board of directors of the Friday Harbor Laboratories, the West Quoddy Biological Research Station, the Organization for Tropical Studies, and the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute.
For the next five years, they will focus their expertise on a $17.7 million research project to study the ecology and conservation of coastal Pacific Ocean marine life.
Menge received an honorary Doctor of Science degree during commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 23 at Southampton College of Long Island University.