[3] She earned her bachelor's degree at James Cook University in 1994,[4] completing an undergraduate dissertation on the muscle structure and dynamics of Idiosepius pygmaeus.

[11] In 2009, Pecl was awarded a Fulbright Program scholarship to join the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and study how climate change had impacted the red king crab.

[13] In 2015, Pecl was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to study the physiological and ecological mechanisms that underpin the redistribution of species through marine systems.

[14] In 2017, Pecl studied how the redistribution of land and fresh water species due to climate change affects human health, wellbeing, and culture.

[4] The Centre is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Tasmania, the CSIRO and the Australian Antarctic Division which aims to understand the interactions between the ecological and social aspects of marine conservation and management.

[30][31][32] Pecl was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to science, particularly ecological research, and to tertiary education".