The samples were taken with a 30 cm diameter plankton net with 156 um mesh plankton netting. In almost all cases replicate vertical tows were taken with the length varying on the depth of the lake. Once on the lake the net is slowly lowered being sure that it goes down open side up, stopping briefly at the depth of the tow and then at about a meter per second pulling the net to the surface. The contents of the net are washed down until it will fill about half the sample bottle. It is then emptied into the labeled sample bottle. The samples were preserved in an alcohol/formalin solution and stored in 250 ml Nalgene bottles. The samples were counted by taking a subsample of 1 or 2 mL from the bottle and enumerating all zooplankton by species using a M-5 stereomicroscope. If less than 10 individuals of any taxon were recorded in the sample, the entire sample was enumerated for that taxon.
Samples were collected by members of the laboratory of W. John O'Brien from 2003-2008. From 2009-2011 samples were collected by member of the laboratory of Chris Luecke. From 2012 to 2017, samples were collected in the field by the Lakes Team and sent to USU for analysis. From 2012 to 2017, samples were counted and enumerated by Fish Ecology Lab technicians at Utah State University.