Mirror Lake, located in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York, USA, is a pristine, oligotrophic body of water characterized by a nearly neutral pH. The lake covers an area of about 0.50 km² and the watershed area is 3.00 km². Within the watershed, development occupies 27%, 51% is forest, 2% is wetlands, and 20% is surface water.
This lake has a maximum depth of 20 m and an average depth of 4.3 m. It is located in the village of Lake Placid, near the town center of North Elba in Essex.
The Mirror Lake Comprehensive Monitoring Initiative was initiated in 2016 as a collaboration between the Ausable River Association and the Adirondack Watershed Institute. Monitoring is carried out biweekly during the open water season and monthly when the lake freezes over.
These monitoring efforts include collecting surface and bottom water samples for chemical analysis, focusing on chlorophyll-a, nutrients, and metals. In addition, during each sample visit, vertical profiles of temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductivity, and pH are recorded at 1-meter intervals throughout the water column.