Dr Constable is a quantitative marine ecologist using science to assist in ecosystem-based management of fisheries, conservation of biodiversity (including marine protected areas) and human implications of long-term dynamics and change in marine ecosystems.

He was a lecturer in quantitative marine ecology from 1991-1997 before joining the Australian Antarctic Division and has been a program leader at ACE CRC since 2005. He is active (since 1986) in the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR); was a lead author in AR5 on Antarctic ecosystems in Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate; and is currently the Vice-Chair (Biology) of the Southern Ocean Observing System. He was awarded a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation in 2008. His publications include over 40 refereed publications, two edited special issues, and over 160 scientific and policy papers to the work of CCAMLR and other forums.