Sampling details and diversity results for each site and sites combined.

Presented are numbers of sampling units [dead coral heads or settlement devices (ARMS, see Methods)]; estimated total planar area sampled for each locality; the numbers of DNA sequences analyzed; the numbers of taxa (OTUs) for all crustaceans, all decapods, and brachyuran crabs; the numbers of crustacean singletons (see text) (percentages in parenthesis); and for crustaceans the ACE (Abundance-based Coverage Estimator) and Chao1 estimated diversity values [based both on all samples and just six samples per site (in parentheses, to eliminate biases caused by unequal sample numbers)]. The “IWP” and “CP” columns show the results for the localities of the Indo-West Pacific combined (Ningaloo, Lizard Island and Heron Island) and the Central Pacific combined [Moorea, Northern Line Islands and French Frigate Shoals (FFS), Hawaii] respectively.