User:ChesapeakeSediments/Bathyal zone/Breitkrl Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

ChesapeakeSediments and team


 * Link to draft you're reviewing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ChesapeakeSediments/Bathyal_zone?veaction=edit&preload=Template%3ADashboard.wikiedu.org_draft_template
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)
 * Bathyal zone

Evaluate the drafted changes
Upon first glance, the sandbox article has no clear introduction or definition of bathyal zone. Instead, the article begins with a section titled "Virus and microbial ecology". This title is confusing to me, as viruses are microbes, and would be represented in the title "microbial ecology". Perhaps editors could make Viruses a subsection of microbial ecology if they wanted viruses to stand out as a stand alone piece of content. Maybe this section could be broken up into TYPES of microbial communities in general - it looks as if each paragraph covers a distinct community anyway, i.e. prokaryotes, archaea, heterotrophic eukaryotes, and viruses.

Regarding the "Physical Characteristics" section, the first sentence is confusing to read. What is the "same ocean basin"? The surrounding water column, above or below? Maybe the word seamount should be highlighted and hyperlinked - I don't think the average nonexpert reader would know what that is, regardless of context clues. Maybe expand on ROVs after mentioning it in the last sentence of this section, just to inform the reader on how ROVs allow these zones to be accessed and studied. Again, not necessarily something a nonexpert reader would understand. Biogeochemistry section seems unfinished. Are there more subsections after carbon to be expanded on? If not, maybe just call this section 'carbonate chemistry' and don't include a subsection. Ecology also seems unfinished, with no apparent introduction. A few introductory sentences defining the general ecology of this zone would help paint a picture for the reader, before jumping into a very specific topic of diel vertical migration. Also, you will need to describe what diel vertical migration is, again, not something the nonexpert audience would probably know. This section could benefit from better grammar. For example, "While in most region, migration patterns can be drive by predation, in this particular region, the migration patterns are not believed to result solely from predator-prey relations, as numerous species don't posses such an antagonistic relationship", this sentence is clause-heavy and contains many spelling errors. Try to convey the information in less clauses. The next sentence can be edited in the same way.

Overall, the article defnitely adds novel and relevant information to a previously not well-described topic. I think that this is a very early draft, as sections don't seem to be complete in terms of content, and perhaps hastily written. The sources are quite exhaustive - which is great! Lots of studies and science covered in this article. As always, figures will definitely strengthen the article, as I'm sure you know, and I'm sure you will include in the final draft. Very cool!