The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a research platform designed to assess the effects of climate, land-use change, and invasive species across North America. NEON’s aquatic program consists of 24 stream, 7 lake, and 3 river sites across 19 eco-climatic domains and collects zooplankton at its 7 lake sites in Florida, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Alaska. Zooplankton occupy a critical mid-trophic position in lake food webs as consumers of phytoplankton and prey of higher trophic levels such as fish and large macroinvertebrates, and are considered core indicator taxa in long-term datasets including the National Lakes Assessment, North Temperate Lakes LTER, and Arctic LTER. NEON’s zooplankton collections started in 2014 with samples collected near the in-lake infrastructure, with one sample collected near the buoy and two samples collected near the littoral sensors. Samples are collected three times per year, roughly in spring, summer, and fall, and are identified by expert taxonomists to the lowest practical taxonomic level, enabling analysis of diversity and community metrics and abundance over space and time. This sampling design enables data analyses that combine the observational zooplankton data and NEON’s collocated instrument and water chemistry collection data products. Within NEON data, zooplankton alpha diversity is highest at Crampton Lake (CRAM), WI (16.1) and lowest at Toolik Lake (TOOK), AK (9.5). However, zooplankton abundance appears to be consistently 2.5 times higher on average in Prairie Lake (PRLA), ND than other temperate NEON sites, including the nearby Prairie Pothole (PRPO) site. With both North Dakota lakes dominated by fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas), differences in top-down pressure do not appear to be the reason for the high zooplankton abundance in PRLA. NEON phytoplankton collection and chemical properties data, aquatic plant coverage data, and water chemistry data including conductivity, are explored as drivers of high zooplankton abundance at PRLA.