Drivers of population dynamics and juvenile mortality in northwest Atlantic harp seals

Human-induced threats to terrestrial and marine wildlife are on the rise, and while some species may face a single major threat that is easily identifiable, others face multiple concurrent threats. Harp seals, an abundant pinniped in the north Atlantic that was historically depleted by human harvest, are one such species: while commercial and subsistence harvests remain a significant source of mortality, in recent decades their environment has undergone significant changes which could also impact population dynamics. Inferring the relative importance of various threats as drivers of population dynamics can be challenging, particularly for marine species where monitoring abundance is difficult: the use of integrated population models (IPM), which leverage multiple data sources to parameterize process-based models of population dynamics, provide one solution to this challenge. We developed a hierarchical Bayesian IPM with which to explore the shifting roles of anthropogenic and environmen..., , # Drivers of population dynamics and juvenile mortality in northwest Atlantic harp seals

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.2z34tmq0k](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2z34tmq0k)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data were used to develop and fit a hierarchical Bayesian IPM with which to explore the shifting roles of anthropogenic and environmental factors in driving population trends. We used a competing hazards formulation for survival, enabling the partitioning of mortality into multiple discreet causes (hazards), and allowing us to assess how these different hazards varied over 7 decades (1952 – 2019). We fitted the model to available data on pup production, fecundity, age structure, human removals, and environmental conditions, and used the fitted model to produce annual estimates of pup production and total abundance. We conducted a Bayesian life stage simulation analysis (LSA) to compare the relative contributions of various hazards to variation in population growth. 

The m...,