[1] Paton is most known for his work on avian ecology and conservation biology, his research on Kangaroo Island and the Coorong, and his contributions to the understanding of the natural systems in Australia for their sustainable management.
[2] He is the author of books, At the End of the River: The Coorong and Lower Lakes,[3] and Overview of Feral and Managed Honeybees in Australia: Distribution, Abundance, Extent of Interactions with Native Biota, Evidence of Impacts and Future Research.
In 1981, he was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship and spent two years conducting research at the Australian Museum before becoming a senior teaching fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Adelaide from 1983 until 1986.
[12] Paton's early research provided the initial evidence that birds, particularly honeyeaters,[13] are efficient pollinators of many of the dominant plant genera in temperate Australia.
[11][21] Paton established and has maintained long-term monitoring initiatives since the 1990s in order to record trends, educate the public, and support local efforts intended to deliver quantifiable biodiversity outcomes.
As part of the Coorong monitoring program, recent investigations showed how filamentous green algae affected seed production of Ruppia tuberosa as well as access to food for waterbirds.
[25] This has resulted in an increased emphasis on how to re-establish self-sustaining and resilient woodland habitats on land cleared for agriculture at landscape scales to help meet the needs of declining species.
These revegetation projects are largely managed through Bio-R and include restoring native vegetation to Cygnet Park on Kangaroo Island [26] and to Frahns Farm, near Monarto, South Australia.