Beach-Spawning Fishes: Reproduction in an Endangered Ecosystem

Beach-spawning fishes from exotic locations on most continents of the world provide spectacular examples of extreme adaptations during the most vulnerable life cycle stages. The beauty, intriguing biology, and importance of these charismatic fishes at the interface of marine and terrestrial ecosystems have inspired numerous scientific studies. Adaptations of behavior, physiology, development, and ecology are gathered together for the first time in this book.

Beach-Spawning Fishes: Reproduction in an Endangered Ecosystem is a comprehensive guide to beach spawning, a charismatic animal behavior that is seen in a surprising number of teleost species. This unexpected form of reproduction provides a window into the ecology of coastal areas, the behaviors and physiology necessary for fishes and their eggs to adapt to terrestrial conditions, and the threats and challenges for conservation and management. Beach-spawning species include important forage fishes such as the capelin, exotic fishes such as the fugu puffer, and the spectacular midnight runs of the California grunion.

Karen L. M. Martin, PhD, is professor of biology and Frank R. Seaver Chair in Natural Science at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, and active in the American Fisheries Society, the American Society of Ichthyologists, and Herpetologists, the Society for Integrative and Comparitive Biology, and other scientific organizations. She has published extensively on studies of animals at the interface between water and land and is associate editor of the journal Copeia. Dr. Martin's previous books are Amniote Origins Completing the Transition to Land, coedited with Stuart Sumida; and Intertidal Fishes: Life in Two Worlds, coedited with Michael Horn and Michael Chotkowski.

After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at Oklahoma University, she earned a doctorate in biology at University of California, Los Angeles, and completed a postdoctoral Friday Harbor Fellowship at the University of Washington. Dr. Martin received the Environmental Partnership Award from the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, and the Conservation Achievement Award from the American Fisheries Society. Her award-winning short documentary, Surf, Sand, and Silversides: The California Grunion, has been screened at numerous regional and international film festivals, conferences, universities, and aquariums. She cofounded the Beach Ecology Coalition and the Grunion Greeters in order to work with multiple stakeholders on beaches to balance human recreation with wildlife conservation. Dr. Martin is an advocate for involving the public in scientific research.