Pink Lake (Canada)

Last updated

Pink Lake
PinkLake.jpg
Canada Quebec relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Pink Lake
Pink-Lake-in-Fall.jpg
Location Gatineau Park, Gatineau, Quebec
Coordinates 45°28′05″N75°48′25″W / 45.46806°N 75.80694°W / 45.46806; -75.80694
Type meromictic
Basin  countriesCanada
The lake looks extremely green during the months of August and September due to excessive growth of algae Pink Lake in August.jpg
The lake looks extremely green during the months of August and September due to excessive growth of algae

Pink Lake is a meromictic lake located in Gatineau Park, Quebec, Canada. The surface of the waters are a deep green during the month of August and September due to the abundance of algae in the water. The lake is in danger of eutrophication due to human activities. Park management forbids swimming in the lake, walking domestic animals near it, straying from the wooden boardwalk for sight-seers, and throwing stones into the lake.

Contents

History

Pink Lake is named after a family of Irish settlers who in 1826 cleared a farm in the area. It used to be a salt water lake as a part of the oceans. It took over 3000 years for the lake to turn from salt water to fresh water (generally a lake of this size shouldn't take over a few decades) and as a result some of the salt water fishes adapted to fresh water.

Properties

Due to the meromictic properties of Pink Lake, there are ancient forms of bacteria that use sulfur instead of oxygen to perform photosynthesis. These bacteria form a layer about 7 metres from the bottom to avoid the oxygenated water and maximize sunlight exposure.

Pink Lake also has a desalinized variant of the three-spined stickleback fish.

In 2006, research was in progress to identify the patterns of atmospheric conditions over the past 10,000 years by examining the annual deposits of sediment in Pink Lake.

Pink Lake plays a symbolic role in the novel Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas. [1]

The 2020 film Pink Lake was shot on the lake, at the real-life cottage of cast member Charles Brook. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Salt Lake</span> Salt lake in Utah, United States

The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow. It is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that covered much of western Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoked salmon</span> Preparation of salmon

Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon, typically a fillet that has been cured and hot or cold smoked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halite</span> Mineral form of sodium chloride

Halite, commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride (NaCl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on inclusion of other materials, impurities, and structural or isotopic abnormalities in the crystals. It commonly occurs with other evaporite deposit minerals such as several of the sulfates, halides, and borates. The name halite is derived from the Ancient Greek word for "salt", ἅλς (háls).

The purple sulfur bacteria (PSB) are part of a group of Pseudomonadota capable of photosynthesis, collectively referred to as purple bacteria. They are anaerobic or microaerophilic, and are often found in stratified water environments including hot springs, stagnant water bodies, as well as microbial mats in intertidal zones. Unlike plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, purple sulfur bacteria do not use water as their reducing agent, and therefore do not produce oxygen. Instead, they can use sulfur in the form of sulfide, or thiosulfate (as well, some species can use H2, Fe2+, or NO2) as the electron donor in their photosynthetic pathways. The sulfur is oxidized to produce granules of elemental sulfur. This, in turn, may be oxidized to form sulfuric acid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gatineau Park</span> Federal park in Gatineau, Quebec

Gatineau Park is a federal park located in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. Administered by the National Capital Commission as part of the National Capital Region, Gatineau Park is a 361 square kilometres (139 sq mi) wedge of land extending north and west from the city of Gatineau. With a perimeter of 179.2 kilometres (111.3 mi), the park includes parts of the municipalities of Chelsea, Pontiac, La Pêche, and the City of Gatineau. The main entrance to the park is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north of downtown Ottawa, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meromictic lake</span> Permanently stratified lake with layers of water that do not intermix

A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Lake (New York)</span> Lake in New York

Green Lake is the larger of the two lakes in Green Lakes State Park, which lies about 9 miles (14 km) east of downtown Syracuse in Onondaga County, New York. Round Lake is the smaller lake located west of Green Lake. Both lakes are meromictic, which means no seasonal mixing of surface and bottom waters occurs. Meromictic lakes are fairly rare; they have been extensively studied, in part because their sediments can preserve a historical record extending back thousands of years, and because of the euxinic conditions which can form in the deep water.

Lake Fidler is a meromictic lake beside the Gordon River in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site area of the west coast of Tasmania, Australia. The lake has a layer of fresh water overlying an anoxic salt water layer. The meromictic lakes and ponds of the Gordon River were discovered by D. A. Hodgson and Professor Peter Tyler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake stratification</span> Separation of water in a lake into distinct layers

Lake stratification is the tendency of lakes to form separate and distinct thermal layers during warm weather. Typically stratified lakes show three distinct layers: the epilimnion, comprising the top warm layer; the thermocline, the middle layer, whose depth may change throughout the day; and the colder hypolimnion, extending to the floor of the lake.

Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline fish is the short-finned molly, Poecilia sphenops, which can live in fresh water, brackish water, or salt water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dried fish</span> Fish preserved by drying

Fresh fish rapidly deteriorates unless some way can be found to preserve it. Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Open air drying using sun and wind has been practiced since ancient times to preserve food. Water is usually removed by evaporation but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then the water is removed by sublimation. Bacteria, yeasts and molds need the water in the food to grow, and drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food.

<i>Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand</i> Novel by Fred Vargas

Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand is a crime novel by French author Fred Vargas, originally published in France in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disease in ornamental fish</span>

Ornamental fish kept in aquariums are susceptible to numerous diseases. Due to their generally small size and the low cost of replacing diseased or dead fish, the cost of testing and treating diseases is often seen as more trouble than the value of the fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nukazuke</span> Japanese pickle made by fermenting vegetables in rice bran

Nukazuke (糠漬け) is a type of Japanese preserved food, made by fermenting vegetables in rice bran (nuka), developed in the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish processing</span> Process from catching to selling fish

The term fish processing refers to the processes associated with fish and fish products between the time fish are caught or harvested, and the time the final product is delivered to the customer. Although the term refers specifically to fish, in practice it is extended to cover any aquatic organisms harvested for commercial purposes, whether caught in wild fisheries or harvested from aquaculture or fish farming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cured fish</span> Fish subjected to fermentation, pickling or smoking

Cured fish is fish which has been cured by subjecting it to fermentation, pickling, smoking, or some combination of these before it is eaten. These food preservation processes can include adding salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar, can involve smoking and flavoring the fish, and may include cooking it. The earliest form of curing fish was dehydration. Other methods, such as smoking fish or salt-curing also go back for thousands of years. The term "cure" is derived from the Latin curare, meaning to take care of. It was first recorded in reference to fish in 1743.

A chemocline is a type of cline, a layer of fluid with different properties, characterized by a strong, vertical chemistry gradient within a body of water. In bodies of water where chemoclines occur, the cline separates the upper and lower layers, resulting in different properties for those layers. The lower layer shows a change in the concentration of dissolved gases and solids compared to the upper layer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahoney Lake</span>

Mahoney Lake is a meromictic saline lake located near Okanagan Falls in British Columbia, Canada. It was established as an ecological reserve to preserve a southern interior saline lake, possessing unique limnological features in 1972. It has a unique layering, where the very bottom of the lake is very salt rich and contains hydrogen sulphide (H2S), which facilitates the growth of the purple sulphur bacteria in the layer above it, where the bacteria has just enough light to grow. The upper layer of the lake consists of a mixing layer of fresh water. Mahoney Lake is alkaline because it features no inflow or outflow of water. The lake also contains very low levels of oxygen and an approximate pH of 7.5-9.0. The surface area of the lake is 18ha and the surface area of the land is 21ha, with combined total of 21 ha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canned fish</span> Processed fish preserved in an airtight container

Canned or tinned fish are food fish which have been processed, sealed in an airtight container such as a sealed tin can, and subjected to heat. Canning is a method of preserving food, and provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years. They are usually opened via a can opener, but sometimes have a pull-tab so that they can be opened by hand. In the past it was common for many cans to have a key that would be turned to peel the lid of the tin off; most predominately sardines, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brownie Lake</span> Lake in Minnesota

Brownie Lake is a lake in Hennepin County, Minnesota, and within the city limits of Minneapolis. It is the northernmost lake in the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. It is within Brownie Lake Park, and administered by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB).

References

  1. Jakeman, Jane (February 21, 2007). "Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas, trans. Sian Reynolds". The Independent . Retrieved 2010-08-29.[ dead link ]
  2. Mike Cohen, "New film Pink Lake dramatizes a true story of when a friend asks another to be her sperm donor". The Suburban , June 2, 2022.