deepwater coral "reefs"?

[EricHugo at aol.com]

Hi Alina and coral-list:

Is there a point when a correct usage of "bioherm" over "reef" for such 
structures became semantically favored?  I ask because I find the following 
perhaps relevant:

Coates, Anthony G. and Jeremy B.C. Jackson. 1987. Clonal growth, algal 
symbiosis, and reef formation by corals. Paleobiology 13(4) 363-378.  

(I will not quote directly to avoid copyright concerns, although I also hope 
that the authors will point out if my translation is incorrect or improper, 
although I maintain the textual use of the word "reef" and "bioherm" ).

"Rugosan corals that formed reefs likely lacked zooxanthellae because of 
morphological evidence. Most  zooxanthellate corals today and in the fossil 
record contribute to reef formation, but many others are ahermatypic. Recent 
reef formation has little to do with being zooxanthellate but depends on 
environmental factors.  Using morphology to indicate the presence of 
zooxanthellae, there exist recent deepwater analogues to the shallow water 
azooxanthellate Devonian Edgecliff Bioherm. " 

Here we have a concatination of terms, distribution, history, and ecology 
that makes this thread all the more intriguing.

Thanks for the clarification

Eric Borneman