Irena Creed

Associate Professor

Research Interests

I am the founder and leader of the Catchment Research Facility (CRF), an advanced monitoring, analytical and modeling facility established for the analysis of catchment processes.

My research involves investigation of the dominant factors regulating energy, water, and nutrient processes and pathways within specific regions across Canada, including the Algoma Highlands of central Ontario, the boreal forest of northern Alberta, and the Prairie Pothole Region of Saskatchewan.

There are three common themes to my research questions:

1.    understanding the natural range in variation of watershed functions
2.    scaling watershed processes from catchment to regional scales
3.    translating numerical models into indices that can be applied to resource
       management decisions

Publications (past 7 years)

Refereed Journals

Gala, T.S., Creed, I.F. (submitted) 'Improved performance of models for predicting soil moisture using physically-based spatially averaging of synthetic aperture radar data' Remote Sensing of the Environment

Enanga, E.M., Shivoga, W.A., Maina-Gichaba, C. and Creed, I.F. (submitted) 'Effectiveness of riparian buffer strips in mitigating changes in soil properties related to land use activities, in River Njoro watershed, Kenya' Water, Air, Soil Pollution

Sass, G.Z., Aldred, D.A., Wheatley, M. and Creed, I.F. (submitted) 'Protected areas - a hydrological approach for defining boundaries based on archived radar imagery' Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Special Issue

Jones, J.A., Achterman, G.L., Augustine, L.A., Creed, I.F., Folliott, P.F., MacDonald, L. and  Wemple, B.C. 2009 'Hydrologic effects of a changing forested landscape – Challenges for the hydrological sciences' Hydrological Processes 23: 2555-2704

Creed, I.F. and Beall, F.D. 2009 'Distributed topographic indicators for predicting nitrogen export from headwater catchments' Water Resources Research 45, W10407, doi:10.1029/2008WR007285

Buttle, J.M., Creed, I.F. and Moore, R.D. 2009 'Advances in Canadian forest hydrology, 2003-2007' Canadian Water Resources Journal 34: 113-126

O’Connor, E.M., Dillon, P.J., Molot, L.A. and Creed, I.F. 2009 'Modelling dissolved organic carbon mass balances for lakes of the Muskoka River Watershed' Hydrology Research 40: 273-290

Kroughly, Z.L., Creed, I.F. and Stanford, D.A. 2009 'A stochastic model for generating disturbance patterns within landscapes' Computers and Geosciences 35: 1451-1459

Webster, K.L., Creed, I.F., Skowronski, M.D. and Kaheil, Y.H. 2009 'Comparison of the performance of statistical models that predict soil respiration from forests' Soil Science Society of America Journal 73: 1157-1167

Kaheil, Y.H. and Creed, I.F. 2009 'Detecting and downscaling wet areas on boreal landscapes' IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 6: 179-183

Clark, R.B., Sass, G.Z. and Creed, I.F. 2009 'Mapping hydrologically sensitive areas on the Boreal Plain: a multitemporal analysis of ERS synthetic aperture radar data' International Journal of Remote Sensing 30: 2619-2635

Creed, I.F., Beall, F.D., Clair, T.A., Dillon, P.J. and Hesslein, R.H. 2008 'Predicting export of dissolved organic carbon from forested catchments in glaciated landscapes with shallow soils' Global Biogeochemical Cycles 22: GB4024, doi: 10.1029/2008GB003294.

Webster, K.L, Creed, I.F., Kaheil, Y.H., Skowronski, M.D 2008. 'A comparison of statistical models to predict soil respiration' Soil Science Society of America Journal S08-0310. Accepted with minor revisions October 31, 2008.

Creed, I.F., Beall, F.D. 'Simple tools for predicting topographic sources of natural variation in nitrogen export from catchments in a northern tolerant hardwood forest' Water Resources Research 2008WR007285. Accepted with minor revisions October 27, 2008.

Kaheil, Y.H. and Creed, I.F. 2008 'Predicting and downscaling wet areas on boreal landscapes' IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters

Krezek, C.C., Buttle, J.M., Beall, F.D., Moore, R.D., Creed, I.F., Sibley, P.K., Silins, U.,  Devito, K.J. and Mendoza, C.A. 2008 'HydroEcological Landscapes and Processes Project: A national scale forest hydrology initiative' Streamline Bulletin 12: 3-38

Clark, R.B., Sass, G.Z. and Creed, I.F. 2008 'Mapping wet areas on the Boreal Plain: A multi temporal analysis of ERS synthetic aperture radar data' International Journal of Remote Sensing

Kroughly, Z.L., Creed, I.F. and Stanford, D.A. 2008 'A stochastic model for generating disturbance patterns within landscapes' Computers and Geosciences

Webster, K.L., Creed, I.F., Beall, F.D. and Bourbonniere, R.A. 2008 'Sensitivity of catchment aggregated estimates of soil carbon dioxide efflux to topography under different climatic conditions' Journal of Geophysical Research 113: G03040, doi: 10.1029/2008JG000707

Webster, K.L., Creed, I.F., Beall, F.D. and Bourbonniere, R.A. 2008 'Controls on the heterogeneity of soil respiration in a tolerant hardwood forest' Journal of Geophysical Research 113: G03040, doi: 10.1029/2008JG000706

Creed, I.F., Sass, G.Z., Wolniewicz, M.B. and Devito, K.J. 2008 'Incorporating hydrologic dynamics into buffer strip design on the sub-humid Boreal Plain of Alberta' Forest Ecology and Management 256: 1984-1994, doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2008.07.021

Sass, G.Z., Creed, I.F. and Devito, K.J. 2008 'Spatial heterogeneity in trophic status of shallow lakes on the Boreal Plain: the influence of hydrologic setting' Water Resources Research 44: W08444, doi: 10.1028/2007WR006311

Sass, G.Z., Creed, I.F., Bayley, S.E. and DevitoK.J. 2008 'Inter-annual variability in trophic status of shallow lakes on the Boreal Plain: is there a climate signal?' Water Resources Research 44: W08443, doi: 10.1029/2007WR006310

Sass, G.Z. and Creed, I.F.  2008 'Characterizing hydrodynamics on boreal landscapes using archived synthetic aperture radar imagery' Hydrological Processes 22: 1687-1699, doi: 10.1002/hyp.6736

Sanford, S.E., Creed, I.F., Tague, C.L., Beall, F.D. and Buttle J.M. 2007 'Scale-dependence of natural variability of flow regimes in a forested landscape' Water Resources Research 43, W08414, doi: 10.1029/2006WR005299

Bayley, S.E., Creed, I.F., Sass, G.Z. and Wong A.S. 2007 'Frequent regime shifts in trophic states in shallow lakes on the Boreal Plain: Alternative “unstable” states?' Limnology and Oceanography 52: 2002-2012

Sass, G.Z., Creed, I.F., Bayley, S.E. and Devito K.J. 2007 'Understanding variation in trophic status of lakes on the Boreal Plain: A 20 year retrospective using Landsat TM imagery' Remote Sensing of the Environment 109: 127-141, doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2006.12.010

Macrae, M.L., Devito, K.J., Creed, I.F. and Macdonald, E. 2006 'Relation of soil-, surface-, and ground-water distributions of inorganic nitrogen with topographic position in harvested and unharvested portions of an aspen-dominated catchment in the Boreal Plain' Canadian Journal of Forest Research 36: 2090-2103. doi:10.1139/X06-101

Hopkinson, C., Chasmer, L., Lim, K., Tretiz, P. and Creed, I.  2006 'Towards a universal lidar canopy height indicator' Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 32(2): 139-152

Lindsay, J.B. and Creed, I.F. 2006 'Distinguishing actual and artefact depressions in digital elevation data: Approaches and Issues' Computers and Geosciences 32(8): 1192-1204. doi: 10.1016 j.cageo.2005.11.002

Bourbonniere, R.A. and Creed, I.F. 2006 'Biodegradability of dissolved organic matter leached from a chronosequence of forest floor materials' Plant Nutrition and Soil Science (Special Issue from the DOM 2004 International Workshop: Dissolved Organic Matter and the Cycling of Carbon, Nutrients and Metals, October 3-6, Bayreuth, Germany) 169(1): 101-107

Foster, N., Spoelstra, J., Hazlett, P., Schiff, S., Beall, F., Creed, I., Semkin, R. and David, C.  2005 'Heterogeneity in nitrogen cycling within soils in first-order forested catchments at the Turkey Lakes Watershed' Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35: 797-805

Hopkinson, C.D., Chasmer, L.E., Sass, G.Z., Creed, I.F., Sitar, M. and Treitz, P. 2005 'Class dependent errors in LiDAR ground elevation and vegetation height estimates in a Boreal wetland environment' Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 31: 191-206

Macrae, M.L., Redding, T.E., Creed, I.F., Bell, W.R. and Devito, K.J. 2005 'Soil, surface water and ground water phosphorus relationships in a partially harvested Boreal Plain aspen catchment' Forest Ecology and Management 206: 315-329

Yao, H. and Creed, I.F. 2005 'Determining spatially-distributed annual water balances for ungauged locations on Shikoku Island, Japan: A comparison of two interpolators' Hydrological Sciences Journal 50 (2): 245-263

Devito, K.J., Creed, I.F. and Fraser, C.J.D. 2005 'Controls on runoff from a partially harvested aspen forested headwater catchment, Boreal Plain, Canada' Hydrological Processes 19: 3-25

Lindsay, J.B. and Creed, I.F. 2005 'Removal of artefact depressions from digital elevation models: towards a minimum impact approach' Hydrological Processes 19: 3113-3126

Lindsay, J.B. and Creed, I.F. 2005 'Sensitivity of digital landscapes to artefact depressions in remotely-sensed DEMs' Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 71: 1029-1036

Lindsay, J.B., Creed, I.F. and Beall, F.D. 2004. 'Drainage basin morphometrics for depressional landscapes' Water Resources Research 40, W09307, doi: 10.1029/2004WR003322

Webster, K.L., Creed, I.F., Nicholas, N.S. and Van Miegroet, H. 2004 'Exploring interactions between pollutant emissions and climatic variability in growth of red spruce in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park' Water, Air and Soil Pollution 159: 225-248

Creed, I.F., Morrison, D.L. and Nicholas, N.S. 2004 'Is there a net gain or loss of nitrogen in decaying wood in the red spruce-Fraser fir forest of the southern Appalachians, USA?' Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34: 716-724

Creed, I.F., Webster, K.L. and Morrison, D.L. 2004 'Density as a Predictor of the Nitrogen Content of Coarse Woody Debris: A Comparison of Four Techniques' Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34: 744-753

Creed, I.F., Sanford, S.E., Beall, F.D., Molot, L.A. and Dillon, P.J. 2003 'Cryptic wetlands: Integrating hidden wetlands into models of dissolved organic carbon export' Hydrological Processes 17: 3629-3648

Supervised Graduate Students and Theses Titles

PhD Students Year Title
E. Enanga Current Effects of seasonal and spatial variations on the fate of nitrogen in forested catchments
S. Girma Current Hydrologic consequences of forest management practices in a regional glaciated watershed
B. Graham In progress Hydrologic Connectivity: A Scaleable Indicator and Predictor of Hydrologic Response
T. Gala 2010 Evaluating Satellite-based Mapping of Near-surface and Surface Water in the Prairie Pothole Region of Central Canada
K. Webster 2007 Soil respiration from forest soils in topographically complex landscapes
G. Sass 2006 Hydrologic controls on the trophic status of lakes on the Boreal Plain
J. Lindsay 2004 Coping with topographic depressions in digital terrain analysis
MSc Students Year Title
C. Kigen Current The potential of using a biological monitoring assessment tool for evaluation of water quality in River Njoro Watershed, Kenya
R. Sorichetti Current Phosphorus controls on cyanobacteria growth in forested landscapes
N. Casson Current Nitrogen cycling processes within forested catchments
A. Rams 2008 Shifts in the magnitude and partitioning of atmospheric versus aquatic carbon export in response to changing climatic conditions
E. Enanga 2007 Effectiveness of riparian buffers in migrating changes related to land use in River Njoro watershed, Kenya
T. Fairweather 2007 Tracking the alternative fates of nitrogen in forested catchments
S. Carlyle 2006 The changing nature of topographic controls on soil moisture in prairie pothole complexes along a climatic gradient
G. Braun 2006 Specificity of substrate control on carbon dioxide efflux from soils along a forest toposequence
S. Sanford 2005 Scale-dependence of natural variability of stream flow parameters in a forested drainage basin on the Boreal Shield
R. Clark 2004 Mapping probability of inundation beneath a forest canopy: A multi-temporal analysis of ERS synthetic aperture radar data
M. Wolniewicz 2002 Hydrological Portals: Unprotected Pathways of Nutrient Loading to Boreal Lakes
D. Morrison 2002 The nitrogen sink versus source potential of coarse woody debris in the southern Appalachians, USA
C. Krezek 2001 Climatic regulation of peak flows and their contributing source areas under natural and disturbed conditions in the Carnation Creek Watershed, Vancouver Island, BC, CANADA
     

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Courses Taught