Current Research
I am starting my research program at Mount Royal University in Fall 2022 so stay tuned for updates! I am currently a co-PI on the salmon genomics work detailed in my postdoctoral research section below, and am revising a broad range of papers with my students from the 2021 Fall Program at Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on everything from thermal stress in sea cucumbers to mass mortality in habitat-forming intertidal barnacles.
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Postdoctoral Research
Conducted under the supervision of Dr. Greg Owens (UVic), in collaboration with Dr. Jeremy Vendetti (SFU), Dr. Jon Moore (SFU), Dr. Ben Koop (UVic), Dr. Shawn Chartrand (SFU), Dr, Isaac Larsen (UMass Amherst), Dr. Elizabeth Dingle (Durham U), Mike Hawkshaw (DFO), David Patterson (DFO), Kendra Robinson (DFO), Eric Rondeau (DFO), Dr. Brian Menounos (UNBC), Kim Menounos (Fraser Basin Council), Derek Heathfield (Hakai), and Greg Witzky (Fraser Salmon Management Council). Funded by BCSRIF.
I'm working with an incredible interdisciplinary group with the goal of understanding the past, present, and future impacts of landslides on river geomorphology, salmon migration, and salmon genomics. We are focusing on the large landslide at Big Bar in 2018 because it jeopardizes salmon populations of the Upper Fraser Basin, but this slide is not a unique occurrence. With the prevalence of naturally unstable silt bluffs in the Fraser River Valley, coupled with the undercutting water at the toe of the banks, large slides are likely to continue; understanding the impacts of and predicting areas of future massive natural phenomena are imperative to protecting Pacific salmon of the Fraser River watershed. I am working on two aims within this project: i) are there genomic regions associated with the ability of Chinook and Sockeye salmon to clear the hydraulic barrier of the Big Bar slide, and ii) what are the genomic consequences of hydraulic barriers on the population genomics of Chinook and Sockeye salmon. |
Conducted under the supervision of Drs. Tim Sackton (Harvard) and Mike Sorenson (Boston U), in collaboration with Drs. Chris Balakrishnan (East Carolina U), Wes Warren (U Missouri), and Jeff DaCosta (Boston College). Funded by NSF.
I worked on the comparative genomics of avian brood parasitism - the incredible loss of parental care and nest building across multiple lineages of birds, along with an astonishing arms race between parasite egg colour, size, shape, and variation with host detection abilities and responses, all tied up in deeply divergent matrilines within interbreeding populations. This is an incredible framework that allows us to utilize host-specific parasitic lineages, generalist parasitic lineages, and closely related nesting species to ask questions related to the evolution of convergent phenotypes, the genomic changes associated with the loss of parental care behaviours, and the maintenance of host-specific adaptation that is linked to the sex-limited minor sex chromosome, an incredible example of adaptation without recombination. Currently, I'm tackling de novo high-quality genome assemblies, hinted and ab initio genome annotations, the development of novel bioinformatic pipelines for comparative population genomics, reference-based mitochondrial genome assemblies, and phylogenetic polytomy resolution. My work on these projects is still in progress, so stay tuned for updates - in the meantime, you can check out my code and project statuses on GitHub. |
Ph.D. ResearchConducted under the supervision of Drs. Sean Rogers (UCalgary) and Rowan Barrett (McGill U). Funded by NSERC and CRC.
1. Temperature as a driver of population distributions
During my first experience tidepooling on Wizards Islets off the coast of Bamfield, British Columbia (BC), I noticed that there were a ton of fishes in this expansive network of tidepools. The BC coast experiences two high and two low tides a day, which means the creatures in this intertidal area need to be able to handle a wide range of stressors associated with the tidal exchange. Interestingly, in the tidepools on Wizard Islets, we only found one particular species of fish that were reliably in the tidepools during low tide - the charismatic, cryptic Tidepool Sculpin (Oligocottus maculosus, pictured above in the banner). This started my first real dive into scientific discovery, and we measured a variety of physical factors across tidepool ranges in an attempt to describe what makes a "good" tidepool for a sculpin to return to. We found that the temperature and volume of a pool were the main drivers, but that these factors also drove a separation between the individuals in the population - smaller adults and larger juveniles were relegated to the warmer, smaller pools while the larger adults took control over the larger, cooler pools during low tide. This project got me thinking more seriously about the effects of temperature on communities (what would happen if there was another resident fish here?), populations (where did this dominance of 'better' pools come from; how is it maintained?), and individuals (what were the consequences of being forced into warmer pools?), and I started to dive into thermal biology with more vigour. 3. Genetic basis of thermal traits While I was breeding the lab-raised generation of fish above, I also used a really interesting aspect of stickleback biology to delve into the potential for a genetic basis in these traits: hybridization. In the same way we can breed fish from the same population together, we can also breed fish from marine and freshwater populations together to create hybrids. This is a really important factor in getting to the underlying genetics of these traits through a process called quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping. This is a method that allows us to identify a region on a chromosome (or regions on many chromosomes!) called QTL that are associated with variation in thermal tolerance and preference - similar to how a postal/zip code is related to the general area that your house is in! We were able to identify a handful of QTL that tell us the general region on a few chromosomes that are associated with thermal traits. This means that there is a genetic basis to these traits, and future studies can use this information to narrow down a gene (or genes) that control these traits. |
2. Phenotypic variation of thermal traits To really get at some of these questions I was interested in, I needed a better model system to work with but I wanted to stay within the realm of ecologically and evolutionarily relevant fishes. Enter stage right: the noble Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus, pictured in gallery below). These little fish are found in marine and freshwater habitats in the Northern Hemisphere and have a fascinating evolutionary history - particularly in southwestern British Columbia, where I was born and raised. I set out to collect wild fish from four populations (two marine and two freshwater sources), brought them into the lab, and bred fish from the same population together to create a generation of fish that hadn't experienced the same thermal variation of natural habitats that their parents had. I tested all these fish under the same environmental conditions to assess their thermal tolerance (physiologically, what is the lowest and highest temperature they can handle?) and their thermal preference (behaviourally, what temperatures do they choose to live in when given a choice?). I used a McGuyver'd homemade set up to create little ice baths and hot tubs for the fish, and once we knew what their critical thermal limits were, I gave them the choice between more moderate temperatures using a fancy system called a Shuttlebox (Loligo Systems). We found that significant generation- and population-specific factors affect these temperature-associated traits, which suggests that we should to consider population-level specifics when we're assessing needs; for example, one population may be more vulnerable to climate change than another, even if they are the same species with a fairly small geographic distance separating them. 4. Ecological consequences of genetically-based thermal traits Now that we know these thermal traits are genetically-based, we can examine how that may promote or constrain adaptation to climate change. We incorporated these experimental data into species distribution models to see how the inclusion of these data impacts both current day and predicted range shifts under climate change. On top of that, using empirical estimates of evolution in this species, we allowed these traits to evolve in the species range projections under climate change. By considering these data, we see restrictions in certain areas of the range and expansion in others, but ultimately, incorporating trait data and trait evolution in species range projections under climate change impact the potential future geographic ranges. |
Publications
Mirchandani C*, Shultz AJ, Wuitchik SJS, Arnold BA, Enbody E, Corbett-Detig R, and Sackton TB. Large-scale comparative population genetics identifies repeated targets of natural selection in birds. Submitted.
Adeel Z*, Mladjenovic S*, Wuitchik SJS, Pahi P*, Dhand A*, Williams-Habibi S*, Brown K, and Moisse K. Challenging assumptions about Hy-Flex teaching with students as partners. In press.
Schaal SM and Wuitchik SJS. 2022. Invited Perspective on Shi et al. (2022): Comparative study highlights how gene flow shapes adaptive genomic architecture. Mol Ecol. 32(7): 1545-1548.
Taylor D*, Farr JJ*, Lim EG, Fleet JL, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Heat stress does not induce wasting symptoms in the giant California sea cucumber (Apostichopus californicus). PeerJ. 11:e14548.
Wuitchik SJS, Mogensen S, Barry T, Paccard A, Jamniczky HA, Barrett RDH**, and Rogers SM**. 2022. Evolution of thermal physiology alters projected species distribution of threespine stickleback under climate change. Mol Ecol. 31: 2312-2326.
Morris MRJ, Wuitchik SJS, Rosebush J*, and Rogers SM. 2021. Mitochondrial volume density and evidence for its role in adaptive divergence in response to thermal tolerance in threespine stickleback. J Comp Physiol B. 191: 657-668.
Hu J, Wuitchik SJS, Barry T, Rogers SM, Jamniczky HA, and Barrett RDH. 2021. Stable DNA methylation in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Genetics. 217: 1-15.
Rivera HE, Aichelman HE, Fifer JE, Kriefall NG, Wuitchik DM, Wuitchik SJS, and Davies SW. 2021. Understanding gene expression plasticity and its influence on non-model organismal performance under climate change. Mol Ecol. 30: 1381-1397.
Wuitchik SJS, Harder LD, Meschkat CA*, and Rogers SM. 2018. Physical tidepool characteristics affect age- and size-class distributions and site fidelity in Tidepool Sculpin (Oligocottus maculosus). Can J Zool. 96: 1326-1335.
Higham, TE, Seamone SG, Arnold A*, Graydon A*, Toews D*, Janmohamed Z*, Smith SJ, and Rogers SM. 2018. The ontogenetic scaling of form and function in the spotted ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei (Chondrichthyes: Chimaeriformes): fins, muscles, and locomotion. J Morph. 279: 1408-1418.
Higham TE, Jamniczky HA, Jagnandan K, Smith SJ, Barry TN, and Rogers SM. 2017. Comparative dynamics of suction feeding in marine and freshwater three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus: kinematics and geometric morphometrics. Biol J Linn Soc. 122: 400-410.
In the Pipeline
Wuitchik SJS, Hillier LW, Balakrishnan CN, Sorenson MD, Warren WC, and Sackton TB. Patterns of lineage-specific genome evolution in the brood parasitic black-headed duck (Heteronetta atricapilla). Submitted. GBE. Check out the preprint here
Bickell A*, Lewis B*, Fleet J, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Intertidal Mytilus californianus is a better biomarker for environmental microplastic pollution than sediment dwelling Leukoma staminea.
Foley SKE*, Wall LE*, Porcher E, Fleet J, Wuitchik DM, Wuitchik SJS, and Martone P. Oxidative stress responses of coralline algae species.
Arthur P*, de Haas H*, Gill L*, Fortune A, Fleet J, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Hot water immersions are effective for controlling the invasive biofouling tunicate Didemnum vexillum.
Burtlake C*, Jones J*, Fleet J, Harley C, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Wave exposure and heatwave-related mass mortality impact the facilitatory role of Balanus glandula on Littorina spp. snails.
* denotes undergraduate researchers
** denotes equal senior co-authors
Adeel Z*, Mladjenovic S*, Wuitchik SJS, Pahi P*, Dhand A*, Williams-Habibi S*, Brown K, and Moisse K. Challenging assumptions about Hy-Flex teaching with students as partners. In press.
Schaal SM and Wuitchik SJS. 2022. Invited Perspective on Shi et al. (2022): Comparative study highlights how gene flow shapes adaptive genomic architecture. Mol Ecol. 32(7): 1545-1548.
Taylor D*, Farr JJ*, Lim EG, Fleet JL, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Heat stress does not induce wasting symptoms in the giant California sea cucumber (Apostichopus californicus). PeerJ. 11:e14548.
Wuitchik SJS, Mogensen S, Barry T, Paccard A, Jamniczky HA, Barrett RDH**, and Rogers SM**. 2022. Evolution of thermal physiology alters projected species distribution of threespine stickleback under climate change. Mol Ecol. 31: 2312-2326.
Morris MRJ, Wuitchik SJS, Rosebush J*, and Rogers SM. 2021. Mitochondrial volume density and evidence for its role in adaptive divergence in response to thermal tolerance in threespine stickleback. J Comp Physiol B. 191: 657-668.
Hu J, Wuitchik SJS, Barry T, Rogers SM, Jamniczky HA, and Barrett RDH. 2021. Stable DNA methylation in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Genetics. 217: 1-15.
Rivera HE, Aichelman HE, Fifer JE, Kriefall NG, Wuitchik DM, Wuitchik SJS, and Davies SW. 2021. Understanding gene expression plasticity and its influence on non-model organismal performance under climate change. Mol Ecol. 30: 1381-1397.
Wuitchik SJS, Harder LD, Meschkat CA*, and Rogers SM. 2018. Physical tidepool characteristics affect age- and size-class distributions and site fidelity in Tidepool Sculpin (Oligocottus maculosus). Can J Zool. 96: 1326-1335.
Higham, TE, Seamone SG, Arnold A*, Graydon A*, Toews D*, Janmohamed Z*, Smith SJ, and Rogers SM. 2018. The ontogenetic scaling of form and function in the spotted ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei (Chondrichthyes: Chimaeriformes): fins, muscles, and locomotion. J Morph. 279: 1408-1418.
Higham TE, Jamniczky HA, Jagnandan K, Smith SJ, Barry TN, and Rogers SM. 2017. Comparative dynamics of suction feeding in marine and freshwater three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus: kinematics and geometric morphometrics. Biol J Linn Soc. 122: 400-410.
In the Pipeline
Wuitchik SJS, Hillier LW, Balakrishnan CN, Sorenson MD, Warren WC, and Sackton TB. Patterns of lineage-specific genome evolution in the brood parasitic black-headed duck (Heteronetta atricapilla). Submitted. GBE. Check out the preprint here
Bickell A*, Lewis B*, Fleet J, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Intertidal Mytilus californianus is a better biomarker for environmental microplastic pollution than sediment dwelling Leukoma staminea.
Foley SKE*, Wall LE*, Porcher E, Fleet J, Wuitchik DM, Wuitchik SJS, and Martone P. Oxidative stress responses of coralline algae species.
Arthur P*, de Haas H*, Gill L*, Fortune A, Fleet J, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Hot water immersions are effective for controlling the invasive biofouling tunicate Didemnum vexillum.
Burtlake C*, Jones J*, Fleet J, Harley C, Wuitchik DM**, and Wuitchik SJS**. Wave exposure and heatwave-related mass mortality impact the facilitatory role of Balanus glandula on Littorina spp. snails.
* denotes undergraduate researchers
** denotes equal senior co-authors
Professional Development
Honours & Awards
SMBE Young Investigator Award (2020)
University of Calgary Board of Governors Graduate Scholarship (2018-19)
Maritime Awards Society of Canada Graduate Scholarship (declined, 2018-19)
University of Calgary Graduate Research Scholarship (2018-19)
University of Calgary Graduate Research Scholarship (2018)
Profiling Alberta Graduate Students Travel Award (2018)
Queen Elizabeth II Doctoral Scholarship (2017-18)
Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship (2015-16)
Alberta Graduate Student Scholarship (2015-16)
WCUMSS Research Fellowship (declined, 2015-16)
Conferences
Evolution 2022 - Evolution of thermal biology alters projected ranges under climate change
Ecological Science Communication Conference 2022 - Breaking down barriers: science communication and outreach opportunities for early career scientists (Invited speaker).
Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2021 - A reproducible workflow for variant calling and comparative population genomics in nonmodel organisms
Evolution 2021 - Lineage-specific evolution in the brood parasitic black-headed duck
American Society of Naturalists 2021 - Lineage-specific evolution associated with brood parasitism in the black-headed duck
Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2020 - Lineage-specific evolution associated with brood parasitism in the black-headed duck (cancelled due to COVID-19)
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution 2018 - Genetic basis of covariation between temperature-associated traits in marine and freshwater threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research 2018 - Physical seascapes influence size- and age-class distributions in tidepool sculpin (withdrawn due to emergency)
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution 2017 - Temperature-associated traits in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Canadian Society of Zoologists 2015 - Thermal preference and tolerance in Gasterosteus aculeatus
Invited Seminars
Evolution of thermal biology impacts species distribution models under climate change, Biology Department Seminar Series, 2022, California State University Long Beach
Using genomics to track evolution in urban areas, Applied Research Methods seminar - URBAN Program (graduate seminar), 2020, Boston University
The ecological consequences of genetically based thermal traits in fishes, Ecology, Behaviour, and Evolution - Marine Biology seminar series (graduate seminar), 2019, Boston University
Thermal tolerance and preference in threespine stickleback, Fall seminar series, 2014, Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre
Training
Graduate Student Writing Development, University of Calgary
Marine Basic First Aid and CPR-C, Alert First Aid
Small Vessel Operator Proficiency (SVOP) license, Transport Canada
Small Non-Pleasure Vessel Basic Safety (MED-A3), Transport Canada
Restricted Operator's Certificate - Maritime (ROC-M), Transport Canada
Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC), Transport Canada
Emergency Oxygen Provision, PADI
Advanced Open Water Diver, PADI
Open Water Diver, PADI
SMBE Young Investigator Award (2020)
University of Calgary Board of Governors Graduate Scholarship (2018-19)
Maritime Awards Society of Canada Graduate Scholarship (declined, 2018-19)
University of Calgary Graduate Research Scholarship (2018-19)
University of Calgary Graduate Research Scholarship (2018)
Profiling Alberta Graduate Students Travel Award (2018)
Queen Elizabeth II Doctoral Scholarship (2017-18)
Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship (2015-16)
Alberta Graduate Student Scholarship (2015-16)
WCUMSS Research Fellowship (declined, 2015-16)
Conferences
Evolution 2022 - Evolution of thermal biology alters projected ranges under climate change
Ecological Science Communication Conference 2022 - Breaking down barriers: science communication and outreach opportunities for early career scientists (Invited speaker).
Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2021 - A reproducible workflow for variant calling and comparative population genomics in nonmodel organisms
Evolution 2021 - Lineage-specific evolution in the brood parasitic black-headed duck
American Society of Naturalists 2021 - Lineage-specific evolution associated with brood parasitism in the black-headed duck
Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2020 - Lineage-specific evolution associated with brood parasitism in the black-headed duck (cancelled due to COVID-19)
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution 2018 - Genetic basis of covariation between temperature-associated traits in marine and freshwater threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research 2018 - Physical seascapes influence size- and age-class distributions in tidepool sculpin (withdrawn due to emergency)
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution 2017 - Temperature-associated traits in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Canadian Society of Zoologists 2015 - Thermal preference and tolerance in Gasterosteus aculeatus
Invited Seminars
Evolution of thermal biology impacts species distribution models under climate change, Biology Department Seminar Series, 2022, California State University Long Beach
Using genomics to track evolution in urban areas, Applied Research Methods seminar - URBAN Program (graduate seminar), 2020, Boston University
The ecological consequences of genetically based thermal traits in fishes, Ecology, Behaviour, and Evolution - Marine Biology seminar series (graduate seminar), 2019, Boston University
Thermal tolerance and preference in threespine stickleback, Fall seminar series, 2014, Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre
Training
Graduate Student Writing Development, University of Calgary
Marine Basic First Aid and CPR-C, Alert First Aid
Small Vessel Operator Proficiency (SVOP) license, Transport Canada
Small Non-Pleasure Vessel Basic Safety (MED-A3), Transport Canada
Restricted Operator's Certificate - Maritime (ROC-M), Transport Canada
Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC), Transport Canada
Emergency Oxygen Provision, PADI
Advanced Open Water Diver, PADI
Open Water Diver, PADI