Mirror Lake

Lakes change constantly in response to their surrounding landscape, and their airshed. Mirror Lake, located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, has been carefully researched since the 1960s. This book, edited by Thomas C. Winter and Gene E. Likens, summarizes and interprets the extensive data collected on this lake and its watershed from 1981 to 2000, a period during which the lake was affected by a variety of climate conditions as well as significant human activity. The findings documented also identify the panoply of chemicals influenced by limnological processes and include percentages of inflow sources, percentages of water loss from seepage, surface outflow, and evaporation, and the effect of water flow on the lake nutrients.

Lakes change constantly in response to their surrounding landscape, and their airshed. Mirror Lake, located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, has been carefully researched since the 1960s. This book, edited by Thomas C. Winter and Gene E. Likens, summarizes and interprets the extensive data collected on this lake and its watershed from 1981 to 2000, a period during which the lake was affected by a variety of climate conditions as well as significant human activity. The findings documented also identify the panoply of chemicals influenced by limnological processes and include percentages of inflow sources, percentages of water loss from seepage, surface outflow, and evaporation, and the effect of water flow on the lake nutrients.

Preface and Acknowledgments xv

1. A Limnological Introduction to Mirror Lake 1
Gene E. Likens

Limnological History of the Lake 4
The Lake Today 5
This Book 13
Tables 15
References 19

2. Hydrologic Processes and the Water Budget 23
Donald O. Rosenberry and Thomas C. Winter

Hydrogeologic Setting 24
Hydrologic Processes 27
Methods of Determining Water Budget Components 31
Results 44
Tables 65
References 67

3. Nutrient Dynamics 69
Donald C. Buso, Gene E. Likens, James W. LaBaugh
and Darren Bade

Research Methods 71
Research Results 83
Considerations 128
Conclusions 152
Tables 155
References 201

4. Evaluation of Methods and Uncertainties in the
Water Budget 205
Thomas C. Winter and Donald O. Rosenberry

Water Storage in the Lake 205
Precipitation 206
Evaporation 207
Surface Water 208
Groundwater 211
Tables 221
References 223

5. Evaluation of Methods and Uncertainties in the
Chemical Budget 225
James W. LaBaugh, Donald C. Buso, and Gene E. Likens

Uncertainty in the Water Budgets Used to Determine
Chemical Budgets 226
Uncertainties in Chemical Analyses 229
Uncertainties in Sample Collection 230
Alternate Approaches to Determining
Chemical Budgets 236
The Relation of Uncertainties to Hypotheses 246
The Relation of Water and Solute Budgets to Lake
Concentrations 257
Uncertainty in Perspective 262
Tables 264
References 295

6. Mirror Lake: Past, Present, and Future 299
Gene E. Likens and James W. LaBaugh

Historical Change 300
Hydrological and Biogeochemical Fluxes 303
Management Considerations 306
Cultural Eutrophication 310
The Future 314
References 320

7. Summary and Conclusions 327
Thomas C. Winter and Gene E. Likens

Index 333