Nocturnal increases in the use of near-surface water by pond animals

Abstract

We assessed diel animal habitat use in three shallow ponds, using unbaited funnel traps, a large column sampler, and sweep net collections in the upper stratum (0–0.3 m) of littoral and open habitats. In all three ponds, more animals were caught at night than during the day, indicating that use of near-surface waters was greatest at night, particularly in the fishless ponds. All methods yielded similar patterns. Our results demonstrate that nocturnal observations of pond animals are necessary to describe their ecology, even in fishless ponds where diel differences in habitat use or behavior might not be anticipated.