Make an information prior for natural mortality — make_informative_mortality

The Hamel–Cope prior for natural mortality is thought to be a good, informative prior for natural mortality. It is based on the maximum age of a fish species.

make_informative_mortality_prior(log_maximum_age)

Arguments

log_maximum_age: A numeric value representing the maximum age of the fish species on the log scale. This value must be greater than 0.

Value

An informative lognormal distribution is returned using the prior class.

Details

The Hamel–Cope prior is based on the assumption that natural mortality follows a lognormal distribution. The mean of the lognormal distribution is calculated as 5.40 divided by the maximum age of the fish species. The standard deviation of the lognormal distribution is set to 0.31.