在德国的某个地方，有一个巨大的坑洞——这是数十年来煤炭开采留下的遗迹。如今，这个坑洞已经变成了一个清澈的湖泊：水下的世界属于潜水员，水上的世界则属于鸟类。这个湖泊被称为“盖泽尔塔尔湖”（Geiseltalsee），位于萨克森-安哈尔特州（Saxony-Anhalt）。全球自然基金会（Global Nature Fund）表示，这个湖泊曾经用于开采褐煤，但在采矿活动停止后的约三十年里，它逐渐变成了一个充满生机的生态系统。
Somewhere in Germany there’s a huge hole left behind by decades of coal mining. Eventually that same hole became a clear lake with divers below and birds above. That’s Geiseltalsee in Saxony-Anhalt. The Global Nature Fund says the lake was mined for lignite in the past and was transformed into a thriving habitat in the roughly three decades since mining ended.
2023年世界水日（World Water Day），该基金会将这个湖泊评为“年度最佳人工湖泊”（Living Lake of the Year）——这也是首个获得这一荣誉的人工湖泊。
The group named it the Living Lake of the Year on World Water Day 2023. That was the first man-made lake to win that title.
从煤矿到巨型湖泊几个世纪以来，人们一直在盖泽尔塔尔河谷（Geiseltal）开采褐煤（一种质地柔软的棕色煤炭）。这里的煤炭开采活动于1993年停止。全球自然基金会描述称，当时留下的矿坑环境极其恶劣，几乎无法支持任何生物的生存。
From coal pit to giant lakeFor generations, crews dug lignite, a soft brown coal, from the Geiseltal valley. Coal mining there stopped in 1993. What was left, the Global Nature Fund describes, was a hostile pit for life in a bare mining landscape.
后来，人们提出了一个新的计划：从2003年开始，工作人员开始对这个废弃的矿坑进行蓄水准备，整个工程耗时八年才完成。2011年，蓄水工作终于完成，湖泊面积达到了1,840公顷（约4,500英亩），最大深度达76米，蓄水量达4.23亿立方米（相当于4230亿升水，大约相当于17万个奥林匹克标准游泳池的容量）。截至2023年，这个湖泊已成为德国最大的人工湖泊。
And then a new plan was proposed. By 2003, workers began preparing the remaining pit for flooding, a job that took eight years to complete. When the work was finished in 2011, the lake covered 1,840 hectares, or about 4,500 acres. The group says the lake is up to 76 meters deep and holds 423 million cubic meters of water. That's 423 billion liters, about 170,000 Olympic swimming pools.
湖泊中的古老秘密在湖泊形成之前，这个山谷就已经闻名遐迩。这里的煤矿中发现了约4500万年前（即始新世时期）的动植物化石。虽然大多数旧矿坑已经被水淹没，但仍有部分化石被保存下来供科学家们研究。丹尼尔·福尔克（Daniel Falk）及其同事在2024年发表于《科学报告》（Scientific Reports）的研究中展示了这一点。
As of 2023, the group called it Germany's largest artificial lake. Old secrets in a young lakeThe valley was well known before the lake was created. Coal mines there also yielded fossils of plants and animals from about 45 million years ago, during a period called the Eocene. Most of the old pits are now flooded. Yet, fossils exist in collections that scientists continue to study.
他们研究了来自马丁·路德大学哈勒-维滕贝格分校（Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg）的168件青蛙和蟾蜍化石标本，发现这些化石的软组织部分仍然保存完好。这项研究也反驳了此前认为“二氧化硅”替代了这些软组织的说法。
Daniel Falk and colleagues show this in a 2024 study in Scientific Reports. The team looked at 168 fossil frog and toad specimens from the Geiseltal collection at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. They discovered that the soft tissue had survived in two distinct layers.
盖泽尔塔尔湖（Geiseltalsee）位于一个对科学研究来说具有重要意义的山谷中。湖水清澈见底，天空湛蓝。由于该湖泊的营养物质含量较低，水中的透明度极高——这种清澈的水质使得一种名为“石藻”（stonewort）的藻类能够生长到大约13米深的地方。湖中还栖息着多种水生昆虫、鱼类以及240种鸟类，其中108种鸟类在湖岸附近繁殖。
The study also did not support the earlier claim that silica had duplicated the tissue. So the lake lies in a valley already significant to science. Clear water, busy skiesGeiseltalsee is nutrient-poor, and its water is very clear. The Global Nature Fund says the clarity allows stoneworts, a type of algae, to grow down to about 13 meters. The lake also supports aquatic insects, fish and 240 bird species, 108 of which breed around its shores.
一些受到保护的鸟类（如普通燕鸥和蜂虎）也将这里作为新的栖息地。湖岸由芦苇丛、草地、灌木丛以及陡峭的悬崖组成，这种多样的生态环境为植物和鸟类提供了丰富的生存空间。当地的环保人士特别关注那些被蜂虎和沙燕筑巢的悬崖区域。截至2023年，当地潜水团队已经培训了25名专业潜水员，他们每年都会对湖底的水生植物进行监测。
Protected birds that have found a new home there include common terns and bee-eaters. The shore is a mix of reed beds, grassland, shrubs and steep cliffs. The variety gives plants and birds many places to live. Local conservationists care for cliffs where the bee-eaters and sand martins nest. As of 2023, local dive groups had trained 25 conservation divers, who check the lake's underwater plants each year.
然而，成功也带来了新的压力：2023年，全球自然基金会（Global Nature Fund）虽然认为该湖泊的生态环境状况良好，但警告称人类活动（如划船、捕鱼等）正在逐渐侵入这些受保护的栖息和繁殖区域。2026年5月20日，萨勒县（Saalekreis）修改了对该湖泊的管理规定，开放了湖泊的北部区域以及南岸的冲浪区。这一决定遭到了环保组织NABU的反对；同年8月21日，哈勒行政法院（Halle Administrative Court）通过紧急程序作出了有利于NABU的裁决，决定暂时禁止在湖泊北部区域进行休闲活动。不过，该县仍有权向上级行政法院提出上诉。
Success brings new pressureIn 2023, the Global Nature Fund called the lake's ecological condition very good, but warned that use was growing. Boating, fishing and disturbance were already reaching protected resting and breeding areas. On May 20, 2026, the Saalekreis district changed its rules for the lake, opening the northern part of the lake and a kitesurfing area on the south shore. It was challenged by the conservation group NABU.
虽然盖泽尔塔尔湖的恢复过程并非完美无缺，但它无疑是一个充满希望的例子——一个曾经的矿坑如今已成为一个拥有清澈湖水和受保护鸟类的美丽自然栖息地。全球自然基金会的自然保护负责人托马斯·谢弗博士（Dr. Thomas Schäfer）在2023年表示，这一恢复项目取得了显著成效。他强调，当前的任务是确保这个新生生态系统的可持续发展。虽然听起来容易，但实际上却非常困难：如何在不破坏生态环境的前提下合理利用这片湖泊资源，是一个亟待解决的问题。
On August 21, 2026, the Halle administrative court ruled in favor of NABU in an emergency procedure. The northern part remains closed to leisure use for now, though the district can appeal to the state's higher administrative court. Geiseltalsee might not be a perfect story, but it’s a hopeful one. Clear water and protected birds are now found in a former mining pit. Dr. Thomas Schäfer, who leads nature conservation at the Global Nature Fund, called it a largely successful restoration in 2023. The task now, he said, is securing the future of the young ecosystem. It might be easy to say but hard to do: to share the lake and not wear it away.