M. Alex Smith

As a biologist, I try to look at life from multiple perspectives by integrating field and molecular biology. I am currently working on multiple projects that include the molecular estimates of biodiversity and the distribution of phylogenetic diversity (using ants as a model system) the co-evolutionary ecology of host/parasitoid/symbiont relationships (using parasitic wasps and flies as a model system) and the phylogeography of both ants and amphibians. These projects all fall within a research program that I describe as, “species and spaces” where I try to test the spatial population ecology and long term ecological monitoring of threatened and understudied species and areas from a biogeographic and phylogeographic perspective using both molecular and traditional ecological tools. My research is hypothesis based but many of these hypotheses are directed by prior discovery based experiments using a preliminary single gene survey of a taxon or an area. Indeed, I see the complementary and iterative interactions of discovery-based and hypothesis-based science as one of the most rewarding features of ecological research with a molecular component.

I am currently recruiting graduate students. If you are a highly motivated student with interests in the research topics described on this page, a Canadian upper-year undergraduate with a strong academic records and intend to apply for NSERC PGS and/or OGS funds please contact me about the possibility of supporting your application. Funded positions are available (see below), however students with external funding (NSERC, OGS, FQAR etc.) are encouraged to contact me. Information regarding the graduate program at the University of Guelph is here.

November 2009 - I am recruiting for an MSc position to begin in May 2010. Check the University of Guelph Graduate Program here to see if you are eligible, and the position description here to see if you are interested. Please contact me if you have questions.

PhD McGill University 2004 (David M. Green)

MSc Trent University 1998 (Michael Berrill and Carolyn Kapron)

BSc Trent University 1996

Full CV

Ecology of parasitoids, hyperparasitoids, symbionts and hosts
"Ecological interactions among species are the most important processes that drive adaptive evolution and the diversification of species" - Wade 2007. Work in this program has already allowed a more accurate direct understanding of patterns of host-specialization amongst several families of parasitoid insects. We are now in a position to examine co-evolutionary relationships amongst the hosts, the parasitoids, their own parasites (hyperparasitoids - Taeniogonalos sp.) and bacterial symbionts (Wolbachia). We discovered several cases where parasitoids expected to be host generalists were, in fact, morphologically cryptic specialists. The inverse of this discovery is a unique capability to more precisely examine the causes and consequences of those remaining truly generalist parasitoids - prior work on these taxa and in this tropical area regarding host-generalist parasitoids dealt with a bad data due to the inclusion of morphologically cryptic specialists! Highly collaborative work with Dan Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs (collections and ecology), Monty Wood, Norm Woodley, Jim Whitfield, Josephine Rodriguez, Michael Sharkey, David Smith and Andy Dean (taxonomy, ecology and phylogeny), and Paul Hebert, Mehrdad Hajibabaei, Rodolphe Rougerie, Dirk Steinke (molecular).

Recent contributions from this program

Smith, M. Alex, Rodriguez, J. J., Whitfield, J. B., Deans, A. R., Janzen, D. H., Hallwachs, W., and Hebert, P. D. N. (2008) Extreme diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps exposed by iterative integration of natural history, DNA barcoding, morphology, and collections. PNAS 105(35):12359-12364.

Smith, M. Alex, Wood, D. M., Janzen, D. L., Hallawachs, W. and Hebert, P. D. N. (2007) DNA barcodes affirm that 16 species of apparently generalist tropical parasitoid flies (Diptera, Tachinidae) are not all generalists. PNAS. 104(12):4967-4972.

Smith, M. Alex, Woodley, N. Hallwachs, W. Janzen, D. H. Hebert, P. D. N. (2006) DNA barcodes reveal cryptic host-specificity within the presumed polyphagous members of a genus of parasitoid flies (Diptera: Tachinidae). PNAS 103:3657-3662.

Biodiversity assessment in a molecular age
"Species are the currency of biology" - Agapow et al 2004 - and molecular techniques for enumerating and comparing areas and faunas should allow the rapid enumeration of 'total biodiversity'. To date, work in this area has been published for a test-data set from Madagascar, and further analyses in Mauritius will be submitted for publication this year. This work is also highly collaborative involving Brian Fisher, Paul-Michael Agapow (and we mourn the loss of our colleague Ross Crozier) and independent work where my lab provides both field collections and genetic expertise. Ant fauna of the Malagasy region provide a model system to examine the co-evolution of endemic and invasive species.

Recent contributions from this program

Crozier R. H., Agapow P-M, Smith M. Alex (in press) Conservation genetics: from species to habitats. Biology International.

Smith, M. Alex, and B. L. Fisher. (2009) Invasions, DNA barcodes, and rapid biodiversity assessment using ants of Mauritius. Frontiers in Zoology. 6:31.

Smith,M. Alex, Fernandez-Triana, J, Roughley, R., and Hebert, P. D. N. (2009) DNA barcode accumulation curves for understudied taxa and areas. Molecular Ecology Resources. 9s1:208-216.

Smith, M. Alex, Fisher, B. L., and Hebert, P. D. N. (2005) DNA barcoding for effective biodiversity assessment of a hyperdiverse arthropod group: the ants of Madagascar. Phil Trans Roy Soc: B. 360:1828-1834.

Biogeography, phylogeography and spatial ecology of temperate amphibians and ants

"Phylogeography…an integrative endeavor that lies at an important crossroads of diverse micro- and macroevolutionary disciplines" - Avise 2000. For many species in the Great Lakes region of North America the principal determinants of contemporary phylogeography are the historic distance from southern refugia during Pleistocene glaciation. Population genetic studies of freshwater species have demonstrated significant genetic structuring in disjunct habitats (such as river basins), however anthropogenic change (e.g. pollution and dams) have reduced many formerly continuous habitats into subdivided islands. Within amphibian species native to Ontario I am interested in investigating local and regional processes of population isolation (dispersal, metapopulation ecology) coincident with hydrogeographic isolation. Within the ant species of Ontario, I am interested in an inter-specific comparison between those species with winged vs. wingless queens and the geographic distribution of genetic variation, and a comparison of the genetic variation of endemic vs. native species where they co-occur.

Recent contributions from this program

Smith, M. Alex, Green, D. M. (2004) Phylogeography of Bufo fowleri at its northern edge of range. Mol Ecol 13(12): 3723-3733.

Smith, M. Alex, Green, D. M. (2005) Dispersal and the metapopulation paradigm in amphibian ecology and conservation: Are all amphibian populations metapopulations? Ecography 28(1): 110-128.

• Editors selected this article for associated commentary: Miller (2007) DNA barcoding and the renaissance of taxonomy. PNAS 104(12):4775-4776
  Editors selected this article for highlight in a front section of the print journal called In This Issue to highlight certain articles published in that issue. PNAS 104(12): 4771-4772
• One of the 50 most read articles in PNAS in Spring 2007.

• One of Molecular Ecology Notes most frequently read papers - 2006-2008.

• Cover article that was one of the most-frequently-read articles in PNAS in spring 2006.
• Editors selected article for associated commentary: Herre, E. A. (2006) Barcoding helps biodiversity fly Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103(11): 3949-3950.

• Cover article of special volume devoted to DNA barcoding.
  One of Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B most cited papers.
• Collaboration is part of the cover article of the March 2006 issue of Discover.

• One of Ecography's most frequently read papers 2006-2008.