Lake Hillier 希利爾湖 粉紅湖

 

希利爾湖（英語：Lake Hillier）也作荷里亞湖，位於澳大利亞西澳大利亞州南部勒謝什群島的中島（Middle Island）上。是一座鹹水湖，希利爾湖因湖水會呈現獨特的粉紅色而聞名於世。當湖水的鹽性增大時，湖中的嗜鹽藻類（如杜氏鹽藻）便會大量繁殖併產生β-胡蘿卜素，使湖水呈現獨特粉紅色。湖水的顏色並非總是粉紅色，而會隨著鹽度的變化而改變，呈現出從淡綠到深紅等不同的色調。


Lake Hillier, is a lake on Middle Island, the largest of the islands and islets that make up the Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia. The most notable feature of this lake is its pink colour. It is such a significant distinguishing feature of the archipelago that air passengers often take note of it. The colour is permanent, and does not alter when the water is taken in a container. The length of the lake is about six hundred metres (3/8 mile). The lake is surrounded by a rim of sand and a dense woodland of paperbark and eucalyptus trees with a narrow strip of sand dunes covered by vegetation separating it to the north from the Southern Ocean. The island and lake are thought to have been first charted by the Flinders expedition in 1802. Captain Flinders is said to have observed the pink lake after ascending the island's peak. John Thistle, the ship's master, collected some of the lake's water, which he found to be saturated with salt.[2] Although the source of the pink colour has not been definitively proven in the case of Lake Hillier, the pink colour of other salt lakes (e.g., Pink Lake) in the region arises from a dye created by the organisms Dunaliella salina and Halobacteria. Another hypothesis is that the pink colour is due to red halophilic bacteria in the salt crusts. Despite the unusual hue, the lake exhibits no known adverse effects upon humans. From above, the lake appears a solid bubble gum pink, but from the shoreline it appears more of a clear pink hue. The shoreline is also covered in salt crust deposits.[3]