[5] In collaboration with the natural products chemists in the laboratories of his mentors, D. John Faulkner and William Fenical, he began working on the chemical defenses of marine invertebrates, including limpets,[6] gorgonian corals,[7] and sea slugs.

[11] Originally demonstrated with manipulative experiments,[12] the resource-trade off was subsequently validated in surveys across the Caribbean by targeting reefs that were intensively overfished versus those that had been protected from fishing.

[20] Pawlik is a proponent of critical rationalism for the advancement of science; he discusses the concept in the courses he teaches[23] and has openly challenged the conclusions of other studies throughout his career.

As a graduate student he contested the claim that neurotransmitters were related to the natural inducers of marine invertebrate larval settlement, arguing that the results of still-water, laboratory experiments with bioactive compounds were artifacts and not ecologically relevant.

[33] Proponents of the SIH responded by dismissing all benthic abundance data derived from photographs on the grounds that they were affected by optical distortion, but this criticism was strongly refuted.

[35][37] Pawlik has been an amateur underwater photographer since the 1980s, but recently turned to video to capture the current state of coral reef environments and to provide outreach related to his scientific publications.