Jonathan Witt carries out research in Molecular Ecology and Evolution and is a world expert on amphipod crustaceans. Environmental Biology and Biodiversity Systematics and Evolution Special Graduate Faculty, University of Guelph Water Institute 2004 PhD University of Guelph 1998 MSc University of Guelph 1994 BSc Aquatic Sciences, University of Guelph

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.

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