[3] Throughout his life, he also served important roles in many organizations and committees, including as the director of Rhode Island Sea Grant, editor-in-chief of Estuaries,[1] and a member of the National Research Council's Ocean Studies Board.
[5] Identified by the dean John Knauss as having potential, Nixon was hired by the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography as a research associate a year prior to obtaining his doctorate and began working as an assistant professor in 1970.
[3] In his early days at the University of Rhode Island, Nixon worked with Candace Oviatt and Michael Pilson,[1] eventually starting the Marine Ecosystem Research Lab together in 1976.
[8] Nixon's first research often collaborated with Oviatt and focused mainly on the ecology of estuaries and salt marshes near the University of Rhode Island campus, including field studies on the metabolisms of mussels,[9] eelgrass,[10] and fish.
[13][14][15] In 1977, Nixon published a book with fellow field ecologist James Kremer of the University of Connecticut on using computers to create an ecosystem model for Narragansett Bay.
[16] In some of his earliest work on eutrophic systems, Nixon published a report for the Rhode Island Water Resources center on the Pettaquamscutt River’s Upper Pond in 1981.