Dr. Katherine Irving
Dr. rer. nat. Katherine Irving is a Scientist specializing in understanding the relationship between river species and their environment. Her research primarily focuses on investigating the impacts of hydrologic alterations on the biota of Californian streams, while integrating various stressors known to significantly influence stream biotic condition, such as temperature variations and land use. Dr. Irving's work spans several key research themes at SCCWRP, including ecohydrology, bioassessment, and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Her approach involves applying advanced predictive modeling techniques to unravel the complexities of river ecosystems.
Dr. Irving earned her doctoral degree from Berlin's Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries and Freie Universität, where her research focused on the influence of hydrology in Species' Distribution Models (SDMs), particularly emphasizing benthic macroinvertebrates. She holds an M.S. in freshwater and marine ecology from Queen Mary University of London, and a B.S. in marine biology from the University of Plymouth. Dr. Irving joined SCCWRP in 2019.
Education
Doctorate (Natural Sciences), Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries Department of Ecosystem Research, Berlin, Germany & Freie Universitaet, Department of Biology Chemistry and Pharmacy, Berlin, Germany, 2019.
M.Sc., freshwater and marine ecology with distinction, 2015.
B.Sc., (Hons) marine biology, 2008.
Professional Experience
Scientist, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, Costa Mesa, CA, 2019-present
PhD Candidate, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin, 2015-2019
Science Divemaster, Operation Wallacea, Tela, Honduras, 2014
Microplastic Research Intern, Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, Samos, Greece, 2013
Assistant Ecologist, Hesketh Ecology, Cumbria, UK, 2013
Professional Societies and Certifications
Society for Freshwater Science – Early Career Committee, Headwaters Leadership Academy
International Society for Limnology
British Ecology Society
Selected Presentations and Conference Proceedings
Irving, K. 2023. Ecohydrology and Beyond: species modeling to inform water resource management. Department of Integrated Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.
Irving, K., R. D. Mazor, K. Taniguchi-Quan. 2023. Flow-ecology in modified streams. California Aquatic Bioassessment Workgroup Meeting and California Society for Freshwater Science Meeting, at SCCWRP, Costa Mesa, CA.
Irving, K., C. Torrens. 2023. Dissolving barriers to unleash the power of predictive ecological models for practical management applications. Society of Freshwater Science Annual Meeting. Brisbane, Australia.
Irving, K. 2022. Vulnerability of Arroyo Toad to hydrologic change. Annual meeting of the California Bioassessment Workgroup. Sacramento, CA.
Irving, K., Taniguchi-Quan, K., Stein, E., Rogers, J., and Mazor, R.D. 2022. Hybrid species distribution models inform flow management in a world of water scarcity. Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting. Grand Rapids, MI.
Irving, K., Taniguchi-Quan, K., Stein, E., Rogers, J., and Mazor, R.D. 2022. Hybrid species distribution models inform flow management in a world of water scarcity. 36th congress of the International Society of Limnology. Berlin, Germany.
Irving K, K. Taniguchi-Quan, A. Aprahamian, C. Rivers, G. Sharp, R.D. Mazor, S. Theroux, R. Peek, E.D. Stein. 2021. Application of flow ecology analysis to inform prioritization for stream restoration and management actions. 28th Annual California Aquatic Bioassessment Workgroup Meeting & 9th Annual California Chapter Society for Freshwater Science Meeting (virtual)
Irving K, K. Taniguchi-Quan, A. Aprahamian, C. Rivers, G. Sharp, R.D. Mazor, S. Theroux, R. Peek, E.D. Stein. 2021. Establishing flow targets for management: decision process sensitivity, a challenge for implementation. Symposium for Freshwater Sciences (virtual)
Publications
Journal Articles
Larsen, S., L. Comte, A.F. Filipe, M.-J. Fortin, C. Jacquet, R. Ryser, P.A. Tedesco, P.A., U. Brose, T. Erős, X. Giam, K. Irving, A. Ruhi, S. Sharma, J.D. Olden. 2021. The geography of metapopulation synchrony in dendritic river networks. Ecology Letters 24:791-801. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13699
Comte, L., J. Carvajal‐Quintero, P.A. Tedesco et al. 2020. RivFishTIME: A global database of fish time‐series to study global change ecology in riverine systems. Global Ecology and Biogeography 00:1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13210
Erős, T., L. Comte, A.F. Filipe, A. Ruhi, P.A. Tedesco, U. Brose, M.-J. Fortin, X. Giam, K. Irving, C. Jacquet, S. Larsen, S. Sharma, J.D. Olden. 2020. Effects of nonnative species on the stability of riverine fish communities. Ecography 43:1156-1166. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04985
Irving, K., S.C. Jähnig, M. Kuemmerlen. 2020. Identifying and applying an optimum set of environmental variables in species distribution models. Inland Waters 10(1):11-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/20442041.2019.1653111
Irving, K. 2019. Improvement of Global Change Projections for Benthic Macroinvertebrates. Doctoral Thesis. Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
Irving, K., M. Kuemmerlen, J. Kiesel et al. 2018. A high-resolution streamflow and hydrological metrics dataset for ecological modeling using a regression model. Scientific Data 5:180224. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.224
Kakouei, K., J. Kiesel, S. Domisch, K.S. Irving, S.C. Jähnig, J. Kail. 2018. Projected effects of climate change‐induced flow alterations on stream macroinvertebrate abundances. Ecology and Evolution 8:3393-3409. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3907
Irving, K., A. Μiliou, M. Vasic, N. Sainz, L. Anderson, W. Weatherhead. 2014. Preliminary assessment of microplastic fibre content in Aegean Sea epipelagic fish. Proceedings of the 5th environmental conference of Macedonia. March 2014, Thessaloniki (p. 61).