Jasper Leavitt

I am broadly interested in conservation and population dynamics of reptiles and amphibians. I’m especially interested in the unisexual complex in Ambystoma, an all-female lineage of salamanders that persists by stealing the spermatophores from males of a related base species. When the unisexuals take up the sperm, the eggs sometimes incorporate the male genome without undergoing meiotic reduction, increasing the ploidy level of the individual. Increased ploidy level has been shown to be correlated with decreased survivability, but the exact mechanisms for this decreased survivability are still not fully understood. 

My Master’s work will focus on the physiology of the various ploidy levels in comparison to the pure base species. More specifically, I’ll be measuring fitness of Ambystoma through two metrics: adult stress response and female reproductive output. Answering these questions will aid in understanding the dynamics of unisexuals and bisexuals living in the same ponds. I will be working with Ambystoma laterale-dependent populations in southern Ontario and the Ambystoma texanum-dependent population on Pelee Island in Lake Erie, a Species-at-Risk group.

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Education

• 2016-present, MSc Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program, Trent University, Peterborough, ON.​
• 2011-2015: B.S. Biology and B.A. Music, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
  
  • Thesis: Examining the initiation of algal cell entry into an embryonic salamander host
    

Contact:
email: jasperleavitt​[at]trentu[dot]ca