Jonathan D.S. Witt

Professor Witt's research is focused on the application of molecular markers to address questions related to the ecology and evolution of aquatic organisms. A central theme that is currently being addressed in Professor Witt's lab concerns the reasons for, and consequences of disparities between rates of evolution at the molecular and morphological levels. To address these issues, we employ both population and species level comparative approaches. The lab is also engaged in research related to conservation, toxicology and the use of molecular methods for the diagnosis of species boundaries.

• Environmental Biology and Biodiversity
• Systematics and Evolution
• Conservation
• Bioinformatics, Systematics and Evolution
• Ecology and Environmental Biology
• Molecular Genetics

• 2004 Ph.D. Biology, University of Guelph, Canada
• 1998 M.Sc. Biology, University of Guelph, Canada
• 1994 B.Sc. Aquatic Sciences, University of Guelph, Canada

• 2011 Excellence in Science Teaching Award (ESTA)
• 2009 Jack Carlson Teaching Award

• Special Graduate Faculty, University of Guelph
• Water Institute

• BIOL 359 - Evolution 1: Mechanisms
  • Taught in 2024
• BIOL 479 - Population Genetics and Evolution
  • Taught in 2024
• SCI 395 - Science Study Abroad Program
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Leung, J., Witt J.D.S., Norwood, W., Dixon J. (2016) Implications of Cu and Ni toxicity in two members of the Hyalella azteca cryptic species complex: mortality, growth, and bioaccumulation parameters. Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, in press.
• Wellborn, GA, JDS. Witt, & RD Cothran (2015) Chapter 31: Class Malacostraca, Superorder Peracarida and Syncarida. Pages 781-796 in J.H. Thorp, D.C. Rogers, and K. Tockner (eds.), Thorp and Covich’s Freshwater Invertebrates, Fourth Edition. Volume I: Ecology and General Biology. Elsevier.
• Millette, K.L., Xu, S, Witt, J.D.S, Cristescu, M.E. (2011). Pleistocene-driven diversification in the freshwater zooplankton: Patterns of glacial refugia, postglacial re-colonization, and cryptic speciation in Leptodora kindtii. Limnology and Oceanography 56: 1725-1736.
• Witt, J.D.S., Taylor, E.B. and Zemlak, R. (2011). Phylogeography and the origins of range disjunctions in a north temperate fish, the pygmy whitefish (Prosopium coulterii), inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence analysis. Journal of Biogeography 38: 1557-1569