The lake that always turns pink in August

This year Lake Burlinskoye has undergone its colour change two or three weeks earlier than usual, apparently due to climate change. The summer's specially hot weather in Siberia has caused its transformation ahead of schedule. 

Before and after its yearly pink phase, the lake reverts to blue on sunny days and a murky grey during overcast weather. The reason for the pink showtime? 

This is a famous salt lake and microorganisms in the water called Artemia salina are the cause of the phenomenon.

This is a species of pink three-eyed brine shrimp with 11 legs, aquatic crustaceans that swim upside down and have been around with few changes for as long as 100 million years, apparently.

The lake offers the largest deposit of salt in Western Siberia, and was it beloved by the Russian royal family. In 1768 Urals miner Prokofy Davydov established the settlement Bursol, specially to extract salt.

Catherine the Great refused to have any other salt at her banquets. 'From now on, I order to bring to the tsar's table only Burlinskaya salt,' she commanded.

The lake is endorheic, it has no river flowing in or out of its shallow waters. In Soviet times, a railway was built into almost the middle of the lake, and trains were equipped with 'salt harvesters' to grab the salt. 

The salt harvesting season stretches from May to November. After a gap in the 2000s, salt is again being extracted commercially from the lake. 

A video shows how the train is used in the waters to mine the salt.