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Background  Mortality is a main driver in zooplankton population biology but it is poorly constrained in models that describe zooplankton population dynamics, food web interactions and nutrient dynamics. Mortality due to non-predation factors is often ignored even though anecdotal evidence of non-predation mass mortality of zooplankton has been reported repeatedly. One way to estimate non-predation mortality rate is to measure the removal rate of carcasses, for which sinking is the primary removal mechanism especially in quiescent shallow water bodies.    Objectives and Results  We used sediment traps to quantify  in situ  carcass sinking velocity and non-predation mortality rate on eight consecutive days in 2013 for the cladoceran  Bosmina longirostris  in the oligo-mesotrophic Lake Stechlin; the outcomes were compared against estimates derived from  in vitro  carcass sinking velocity measurements and an empirical model correcting  in vitro  sinking velocity for turbulence resuspension and microbial decomposition of carcasses. Our results show that the latter two approaches produced unrealistically high mortality rates of 0.58-1.04 d -1 , whereas the sediment trap approach, when used properly, yielded a mortality rate estimate of 0.015 d -1 , which is more consistent with concurrent population abundance data and comparable to physiological death rate from the literature.    Ecological implications  Zooplankton carcasses may be exposed to water column microbes for days before entering the benthos; therefore, non-predation mortality affects not only zooplankton population dynamics but also microbial and benthic food webs. This would be particularly important for carbon and nitrogen cycles in systems where recurring mid-summer decline of zooplankton population due to non-predation mortality is observed.

Estimating In Situ Zooplankton Non-Predation Mortality in an Oligo-Mesotrophic Lake from Sediment Trap Data: Caveats and Reality Check