Comment on “Climate and agricultural land use change impacts on streamflow in the upper midwestern United States,” by Satish C. Gupta et al.: COMMENT ON GUPTA ET AL. [2015]

Belmont, Patrick; Stevens, John R.; Czuba, Jonathan A.; Kumarasamy, Karthik; Kelly, Sara A.

doi:10.1002/2015WR018476

Abstract Estimating correlations among demographic parameters is an important method in population ecology. A recent paper by Deane et al. (Ecology and Evolution13:e9847, 2023) attempted to explore the effects of different priors for covariance matrices on inference when using mark‐recovery data. Unfortunately, Deane et al. (2023) made a mistake when parameterizing some of their models. Rather than exploring the effects of different priors, they examined the effects of the use of incorrect equations on inference. In this manuscript, we clearly describe the mistake in Deane et al. (2023). We then demonstrate the use of an alternative and appropriate method and reach different conclusions regarding the effects of priors on inference. Consistent with other recent literature, informative inverse Wishart priors can lead to flawed inference, while vague priors on covariance matrix components have little impact when sample sizes are adequate.

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