organisms. Due to their susceptibility to stormwater and heavy metal pollution, inland silversides are often used as an indicator for watershed health, as a study of an introduced population in San Diego, CA found that even 5-10% effluent concentration of pollutants could cause abnormal embryo and larval development. Elevated levels of pollutants, often due to the inflow of stormwater, have been found to cause increased egg mortality. Furthermore, exposure to pollutants such as cadmium, chromium, and copper can cause abnormal inflation of the swim bladder leading to buoyancy and locomotion issues, affecting individual's ability to feed, which can lead to sharp declines in population. Other developmental consequences of exposure to heavy metals and other pollutants include spinal curvature, reduced body size, and different eye sizes. Compared to other species in the estuarine and river environments, inland silversides often display adverse effects to far lower concentrations of pollutants, emphasizing their susceptibility to the influx of chemical and heavy metal pollutants. Along with their susceptibility to chemical pollutants, inland silverside embryos exhibit negative effects when exposed to pathogenic funguses, such as Beaveria bassiana. Beaveria bassiana is an insecticide pathogenic fungus used in agricultural pest control that is usually nontoxic to nontarget vertebrates. Beaveria bassiana has been found to degrade inland silverside embryos eventually leading to embryo deaths. Extracellular enzymes secreted by the fungus are able to digest proteins of the chorion, the outermost layer, of the embryo, eventually causing the chorion to rupture, instantly killing the embryo. Unlike exposure to chemical pollutants, exposure to the fungus led to immediate death rather than developmental abnormalities, as toxins secreted by fungus quickly digests the proteins of the embryos. These adverse reaction to Beaveria bassiana further indicate the sensitivity of inland silversides to foreign pollutants and microorganisms. Inland silversides, Menidia beryllina, have distinct spawning behavior throughout their range, with individuals in the northern range exhibiting a unimodal spawning season between May and July and those in the southern range displaying either a bimodal spawning season, often spawning in the spring and again in the early fall. Inland silversides are dependent on water temperature for spawning, with both the initiation and cessation of spawning occurring within similar temperature ranges throughout their geographical range. Spawning is initiated when water temperatures are between 13.5C and 17.0C and spawning end when water temp rates rise to 27.0C to 32.4C. Many populations, especially those in Texas and Florida, are r-strategists,