Bioerosion on Fungia pieces and coral recruits, calcification and settlement data on Palmyra Atoll reef.

Coral recruitment and calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) accretion are
fundamental processes that help maintain coral reefs. Many reefs
worldwide have experienced degradation, including a decrease in
coral cover and biodiversity. Successful coral recruitment helps
degraded reefs to recover, while CaCO₃ accretion by early
successional benthic organisms maintains the topographic complexity
of a coral reef system. It is therefore important to understand the
processes that affect coral recruitment and CaCO₃ accretion rates in
order to understand how coral reefs recover from disturbances. The
aim of this thesis was to determine how biophysical forcing factors
affect coral recruitment, calcification and bioerosion on a pristine
coral reef.