Pink lake

Pink lakes arise from a combination of factors, which include climate and hydrology of the continent beneath them, in particular the level of salinity. The orange/pink colour of salt lakes across the world has often been attributed to the green alga Dunaliella salina, but other work has shown that bacteria or archaea are also involved. Alga Dunaliella salina is the most halophilic (salt-tolerant) alga known and can grow in salinity as high as 35% NaCl (in comparison to seawater, which contains approximately 3% NaCl). The single-celled green alga plays a key role in primary production in hypersaline environments around the world. At high salinity, temperature, and light, this alga accumulates the red carotenoid pigment, beta-carotene. This is the same pigment that gives carrots, which contain 0.3% of beta-carotene, their colour. of the DNA recovered from the lake. ==Characteristics==

The majority of pink salt lakes change their colour which is often linked to rainfall. A lake in Westgate Park, Melbourne, Australia, was coloured pink in March 2017 and then again in September 2019, but since then and had taken on a dark green hue. Warmer weather and lower rainfall appears to make it turn pink. As water evaporates, the salinity increases, but salinity is not the only factor at work. Sediment and the organisms living in the lake affect its colour, and the shade of pink that it takes on. Pink lakes such as Lake Hillier can be up to ten times saltier than seawater (the Dead Sea in Israel is around nine times so). It is safe to swim in Lake Hillier, but it is not advisable to drink it owing to the effect of its hypersalinity on the human body, and the possibility of micro-organisms which may be harmful to human health. ==Examples==

Africa • Kleinzee Yacht Club in Kleinzee, Northern Cape, South Africa • Lake Natron near Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania • Lake Magadi in the Kenyan Rift Valley, Kenya • Lake Retba or Lac Rose, in Senegal • Koryakovka (lake), Kazakhstan • Krasnovishnevoye, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia • Lipar Pink Wetland in the Chabahar, Sistan, Iran • Lonar Lake in Maharashtra, India • Malinovoye, Altai Krai, Siberia, Russia • Masazirgol (Masazir Lake), near Baku, Azerbaijan • Lake Hillier in the Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia Europe • Koyashskoye Salt Lake, on the southern coast of Kerch Peninsula, Crimea, Ukraine • Las Salinas de Torrevieja, near Torrevieja in Alicante province, Spain • Les Salins d'Aigues-Mortes, in the Camargue in France • Pačir lake, Bačka Topola, Serbia == See also ==