Chris M. Wood

Adjunct Member

While the primary focus of our group is on physiology and aquatic toxicology, our research examines the interactions of fish, crustaceans, and molluscs with their environment at all levels from the molecular to the biogeochemical to the ecological. We are particularly interested in the sublethal effects of natural factors (temperature, oxygen, water chemistry, exercise, feeding, social interactions) and anthropogenic pollutants (metals, ammonia, low and high pH, climate change) on organismal function, and the strategies by which animals adapt to extreme environments. Particular projects at present consider fuel usage and nitrogenous waste production in fish on different feeding and exercise regimes, ammonia and urea transport, acid-base regulatory mechanisms at gills and kidney, in vitro primary culture models for understanding gill function, the osmorespiratory compromise at the gills during exercise and hypoxia, the role of ammonia in ventilatory control, the importance of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) as a water quality parameter altering both metal toxicity and fish gill function, and the kinetics of metal uptake and homeostasis, particularly in mixtures, with the goal of improvement of environmental regulations

  • Office phone
    604-827-1576
  • Website
    https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~woodcm/Woodblog/
  • Research area
    Comparative Physiology
  • Lab members
    J. Eom
    E. Jung
    B. Po
  • Lab Website
    https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~woodcm/Woodblog/
  • History

    1968 Honours B.Sc., UBC

    1971 M.Sc., UBC

    1974 Ph.D., University of East Anglia

    1974-1976 NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Calgary

    1976 - 2014 Assist, Assoc., and Full Professor of Biology, McMaster University

    2001-2014 Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Environment and Health

    1995-2004 Adjunct Professor, Rosenstiel School, University of Miami

    2004 - present,  Research Professor, Rosenstiel School, University of Miami

    2003 - present, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

    2005 - present, Lifetime Distinguished Professor, McMaster University

    2014 - present, Emeritus Professor of Biology, McMaster University

    2012 - present, Adjunct Professor of Zoology, UBC

    2018 - present, Foreign Member, Brazilian Academy of Sciences

     

Is ammonia excretion affected by gill ventilation in the rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss?
Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 275:103385
Eom, J, Fehsenfeld, S., and Wood, C.M.
2020
Metal bioavailability models: current status, lessons learned, considerations for regulatory use, and the path forward
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 39:60-84
Mebane, C.A., Chowdhury, M.J., De Schamphelaere, K.A.C., Lofts, S., Paquin, P.R., Santore, R.C., and Wood, C.M.
2020
Reverse translation: effects of acclimation temperature and acute temperature challenges on oxygen consumption, diffusive water flux, net sodium loss rates, Q10 values and mass scaling coefficients in the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Journal of Comparative Physiology B 190: 205-217
Onukwufor J.O. and Wood, C.M.
2020
Understanding the gastrointestinal physiology and responses to feeding in air breathing Anabantiform fishes from the Mekong delta
Journal of Fish Biology 96:986-1003
Goodrich, H.R., Bayley, M., Birgersson, L., Davison, W.G., Johansson, O.E., Kim, A.B., My, P.L., Tinh, T.H., Thanh, P.N., Thanh, H.D.T., and Wood, C.M.
2020
Nitrogen handling in the elasmobranch gut: a role for microbial urease
Journal of Experimental Biology 222:jeb194787
Wood, C.M., Liew, H.J.,De Boeck, G., Hoogenboom, J.L., and Anderson, W.G.
2019
The internal CO2 threat to fish: high PCO2 in the digestive tract
Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286: 20190832
Wood, C.M. and Eom, J.
2019