ABSTRACT
Beach spawning has evolved multiple times in diverse teleost lineages. A beachfront home provides many benefits to embryos, along with some obvious potential disadvantages. Advantages to the embryos include the potential for increased oxygen diffusion rates and higher temperatures during air exposure, both of which may speed embryonic development, and avoidance of aquatic predators (Taylor et al., 1977; Middaugh et al., 1983; Martin et al., 2009). Disadvantages on the other hand are present for both the embryos and the spawning adults, and include a higher risk of desiccation while in air and exposure to novel predators or pathogens from the land (Martin, 1999; Martin & Strathmann, 1999; Strathmann & Hess, 1999). There is also the chance a larva may hatch into a terrestrial environment for which, as a fish, it is completely unprepared (Frank & Leggett, 1981). Chapter 7 provides more details on the effects of incubation on the beach for the early life stages.
