Shallow 1 : Deep 1

I've decided that friday afternoons (2-6pm) is going to be my time each week to catch up with my paper compiling and reading. With the mayhem of moving and my different research avenue last year, I have fallen somewhat behind. So what am I doing blogging during this time, I hear you ask. 

Well, I was just reading some shallow water coral reproduction papers. There aren't many papers on deep-water coral reproduction, the modes are similar to shallow water, and it's always good to keep on top of what those shallow water folks are up to, so i've been downloading many and reading a few on the way. And I just got very excited - I have come across a shallow water coral reproduction paper that cites one of my deep-water papers in it. This is a miracle (by the way). 

You see, those shallow water coralites generally don't like us deep-water people, our methods are different, we don't have the amount of samples as they do (we can't really sample 1000m twice a week for a year like you can on shallow reefs), and I swear some of them don't consider azooxanthellates (without the photosynthetic algae that live in symbiosis with shallow species) to be corals at all. 

For example my first three papers I tried putting in the journal Coral Reefs, and boy did I have a fight on my hands each time, as did the editor to get reviewers who would even get past the fact they were deep-water papers (and to be fair, he was very pro me getting my papers in there). By definition those papers really belonged in that journal - I wanted my research to be read by coral researchers not just deep-sea folks (and it's a really good, well read, high impact journal), so I didn't give up and eventually they got accepted and published. I still remember my favourite review of all time that simply said "This paper is deep-water, it doesn't belong in Coral Reefs" and they didn't even bother to review it. Bah humbug. 

So finally maybe it's-  Shallow 1 : Deep 1

Photo from DASS05, URI, IFE, NOAA OE