# Emigration patterns of motile cryptofauna and their implications for trophic functioning in coral reefs --- Five treatments were developed to detect community-level differences in the directional influx of motile cryptofauna under various habitat accessibility regimes. Four of these treatments were developed by modifying accessibility into RUBS (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4176644/files) to understand limitations on the directional influx and movement of cryptofauna within coral rubble patches using four treatments; (1) open (completely accessible), (2) interstitial access (top closed), (3) surficial access (sides and bottom closed), and (4) raised (above rubble substratum). The fifth treatment involved a series of emergence plankton traps, designed to target demersal cryptofauna that vertically migrate from within the rubble benthos at night, given emergent zooplankton biomass and diversity are greatest at night. Fieldwork was conducted over several weeks (11th September to 5th October 2021) in a shallow (~3–5 m depth) reef slope site on the southern margin of Heron Island (-23˚26.845’ S, 151˚54.732’ E), Great Barrier Reef, Australia (Fig. 1). All collections were conducted under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority permit G20/44613.1. ## Description of the data and file structure There are two data files. The first, RUBS_HIRSSep21.xlsx hosts the data pertaining to the four modified RUBS treatments. Each row is a new individual. Data are arranged in columns by: 1- date_in = date RUBS were deployed 2- date_out = ate RUBS were retrieved 3- days = total number of days deployed 4- rubs_id = identification number of each RUBS used 5- rep = replicate number per treatment 6- trt = four directional treatments (open, top_closed, top_open, above) 7- wdv = water displacement volume (mL) of RUBS to calculate density 8-12- phylum, class, order, family, name = species name for each individual counted 13- size = size in mm of each individual The second dataset emergents.xlsx is arranged the same and pertains to data collected using emergence traps. Each row is a new individual. Columns are: 1- date_in = date traps were deployed 2- date_out = ate traps were retrieved 3- days = total number of days deployed 4- rubs_id = identification number of each trap used 5- rep = replicate number of traps 6- trt = treatment (emergent only) 7- wdv = area (cm2) of traps to calculate density 8-12- phylum, class, order, family, name = species name for each individual counted 13- size = size in mm of each individual ## Code/Software No novel code was used.