The brines of natural salt lakes with total salt concentrations exceeding 30% are often colored red by dense communities of halophilic microorganisms. Such red brines are found in the north arm of Great Salt Lake, Utah, in the alkaline hypersaline lakes of the African Rift Valley, and in the crystallizer ponds of coastal and inland salterns where salt is produced by evaporation of seawater or some other source of saline water. Red blooms were also reported in the Dead Sea in the past. Different types of pigmented microorganisms may contribute to the coloration of the brines. The most important are the halophilic archaea of the class Halobacteria that contain bacterioruberin carotenoids as well as bacteriorhodopsin and other retinal pigments, β-carotene-rich species of the unicellular green algal genus Dunaliella and bacteria of the genus Salinibacter (class Rhodothermia) that contain the carotenoid salinixanthin and the retinal protein xanthorhodopsin. Densities of prokaryotes in red brines often exceed 2–3 × 10⁷ cells/mL. I here review the information on the biota of the red brines, the interactions between the organisms present, as well as the possible roles of the red halophilic microorganisms in the salt production process and some applied aspects of carotenoids and retinal proteins produced by the different types of halophiles inhabiting the red brines.

总盐浓度超过 30% 的天然盐湖的卤水经常被密集的嗜盐微生物群落染成红色。这种红色卤水见于犹他州大盐湖的北臂、非洲大裂谷的碱性高盐湖，以及沿海和内陆盐场的结晶池中，在那里通过蒸发海水或某些其他来源的盐产生盐。盐水。过去也有报道称死海有红花。不同类型的有色微生物可能会导致盐水的着色。最重要的是嗜盐菌属的嗜盐古菌，它含有细菌红红素类胡萝卜素以及细菌视紫红质和其他视网膜色素，单细胞绿藻属的富含β-胡萝卜素的物种杜氏盐藻和盐杆菌属细菌（红热菌类），含有类胡萝卜素盐黄质和视网膜蛋白黄视紫质。红色盐水中原核生物的密度通常超过 2–3 × 10 ^{7 个}细胞/mL。我在这里回顾了关于红色盐水生物群的信息，存在的生物之间的相互作用，以及红色嗜盐微生物在盐生产过程中的可能作用以及不同类型产生的类胡萝卜素和视网膜蛋白的一些应用方面栖息在红色盐水中的嗜盐菌。