#carotenoid

[earthstory]

Morning Glory Pool This spot, especially when caught at the right time of year, is one of the most colorful in Yellowstone National Park, flashing all the colors of the rainbow.

The intense blue at the center of many hydrothermal features indicates extremely hot water. The water rising up in the center of Hot Springs is often so hot that it is barren of microscopic life, sometimes exceeding the boiling point of water at this elevation. The blue color comes from an effect similar to that of the blue sky – sunlight enters the pool and blue light is scattered the most, coming back to the eye and making pure waters appear blue. The remaining rainbow is actually caused by life. As the waters cool and move away from the center of the pool, different organisms are able to begin processing the nutrients carried by the waters from deeper in the Yellowstone hydrothermal system. The green colors occur when cyanobacteria, which are able to process sunlight and survive these temperatures, take over. Further out, different bacteria that produce carotenoids (the same compound that gives carrots their orange color) take over and complete the rainbow with yellow, orange, and maybe a bit of red. In other pools, bacteria that process sulfur can produce the same colors, but those bacteria can change the order of the colors from the well-ordered rainbow we see here. -JBB Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/ejga3Y Read more http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/hotsprings.htm http://bioinfo.bact.wisc.edu/themicrobialworld/LAHT/b4.html http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/thermobacteria.htm

[dothefishytank]

Moved everyone around because chaed decided to be a dick. Also meet the new girl on the block Ouroboros she doesnt like me and flares when I look at her too long.

[earthstory]

Pink lake in Turkey

[earthstory]

hobopeeba

Hutt Lagoon is a pink lake on the West Coast near the town of Gregory. This very small town is located on a narrow spit between the ocean and the pink lagoon.

Hutt Lagoon is a pink lake, a salt lake with a red or pink hue due to the presence of the carotenoid-producing algae Dunaliella salina, a source of ß-carotene, a food-colouring agent and source of vitamin A.

I dreamed about the pink lake for a long time, and it turned out to be better than my dreams. Pools with a different shade of red, pink, and sometimes yellow and blue. Pink salt on the shore, which glitters like snow - it all looks like abstractionist paintings in reality. Nature and man in this case did the magic.

[earthstory]

Lake Hillier, Western Australia

Last week I posted about the beautfiul blue-green lakes of Mt. Kelimutu, Indonesia here:http://on.fb.me/1ADj7V8. This week I thought I’d cover another colourful waterbody - Lake Hillier.

Lake Hillier is located on Middle Island, part of the Recherche Archipelago which is found off the southern coast of Western Australia. The Lake is particularly striking against the green forest, white sand, and neighbouring turquoise ocean. It’s a small lake, measuring 600 m (1968 ft) by 250 m (820 ft). As with the the nearby Pink Lake in WA and Lake Retba in Senegal, the unusual colour is likely caused by halophytic algae - Dunaliella salina, pink halobacteria and high salt content. However, this cause hasn’t been confirmed at Lake Hiller.

So, how does algae turn water red? When the water level drops, water temperature, light availability and salinity concentration increase. This stimulates the algae to produce and store carotenoids (xanothophylls and carotenes), pigments that help protect the organism against oxidative stress. This causes the ordinarily green algae to appear red or pink.

If you cast back to our Kelimutu Lakes post, in the comments section we mentioned that the colour of these unusually hued lakes are usually affected by seasonal variations related to water level, temperature and chemistry. However, the water of Lake Hillier has a couple of unique features: it retains it’s brilliant colour when bottled (unlike other pink lakes) and the hue is unaffected by seasonal water fluctuations - it stays brilliant pink year round.

YK

Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LIQENI_HILLIER_-_ROZE.jpg

Past articles: Lake Retba - http://on.fb.me/1C5RHoI Further reading: Lake Hillier - http://hillierlake.com/&http://bit.ly/1LWL2D1 Carotenoids - http://bit.ly/1CCI8k0

[earthstory]

sharjah24#Dronefootage shows the #starkdifference in the salinity between the two sides of #Utah's #GreatSaltLake, with one side of the water appearing to be a #pinkcolor and the other a #green-blue. A railroad cuts the Great Salt Lake in two. 

[earthstory]

Airplane window view of Australia’s Lake Hillier, colored pink by bacteria that live in the waters.

emjgough

For someone who hates flying I seem to find myself in tiny planes a lot! Totally worth it for this view

[dothefishytank]

Ride em' cowboy