Evolutionary and ecological constraints of fish spawning habitats

Abstract For marine fish, the choice of the spawning location may be the only means to fulfil the dual needs of surviving from the egg to juvenile stage and dispersing across different habitats while minimizing predation and maximizing food intake. In this article, we review the factors that affect the choice of fish spawning habitats and propose a framework to distinguish between ecological and evolutionary constraints. We define the former as the boundaries for phenotypically plastic responses to environmental change, in this case the ability of specific genotypes to change their spawning habitat. Processes such as predation, starvation, or aberrant dispersal typically limit the amount of…