North Temperate Lakes LTER: Southern Lake Spiny Water Flea 2016 - present

Beginning in 2016, vertical tows with a special zooplankton net were collected in the lakes of the Yahara River specifically for the invasive Bythotrephes longimanus (spiny water flea). The net has a 400 micrometer mesh with a 0.5 meter diameter opening. Individuals are simply counted, and density is determined to be the number of individuals divided by the total water volume of each tow. The depth of the tow, and therefore the tow volume, varies by lake. Additional sampling for spiny water flea occurred 2009 - 2014 as a part of graduate student research (dataset knb-lter-ntl.343). Spiny water flea are also captured occasionally during our standard zooplankton tows of the southern lakes (knb-lter-ntl.90).