Data and analysis from: Body mass, temperature, and depth shape the maximum intrinsic rate of population increase in sharks and rays

<p>An important challenge in ecology is to understand variation in species' maximum intrinsic rate of population increase, 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥, not least because 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥 underpins our understanding of the limits of fishing, recovery potential, and ultimately extinction risk. Across many vertebrate species, terrestrial and aquatic, body mass and environmental temperature are important correlates of 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥. In sharks and rays, specifically, 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥 is known be lower in larger species, but also in deep-sea ones.</p> <p>We use an information-theoretic approach that accounts for phylogenetic relatedness to evaluate the relative importance of body mass, temperature and depth on 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥. We show that both temperature and depth have separate effects on shark and ray 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥 estimates, such that species living in deeper waters have lower 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥. Furthermore, temperature also correlates with changes in the mass scaling coefficient, suggesting that as body size increases, decreases in 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥 are much steeper for species in warmer waters.</p> <p>These findings suggest that there are (as-yet understood) depth-related processes that limit the maximum rate at which populations can grow in deep sea sharks and rays. While the deep ocean is associated with colder temperatures, other factors that are independent of temperature, such as food availability and physiological constraints, may influence the low 𝑟_𝑚𝑎𝑥 observed in deep sea sharks and rays. Our study lays the foundation for predicting the intrinsic limit of fishing, recovery potential, and extinction risk species based on easily accessible environmental information such as temperature and depth, particularly for data-poor species.</p> <p>This repository contains the data and a minimum working example of the model-fitting process used for the article "Body mass, temperature, and depth shape productivity in sharks and rays", which is currently in press at <em>Ecology and Evolution</em>.</p>