THE GREAT Barrier Reef is a pure marvel. Spanning 2,300km alongside the north-east coast of Australia, this huge ecosystem boasts lots of of species of multicoloured corals throughout an space roughly the dimensions of Italy. 1000’s of different marine species depend on it for his or her survival. However the price at which Earth is warming leaves its future doubtful.The southern-hemisphere summer season that resulted in February is prone to have been the deadliest within the reef’s historical past. What made it so was the unprecedented thermal stress—a measure of each excessive temperatures and their period—it endured. Within the reef’s southern third, the place the stress was worst, sea-surface temperatures peaked at 2.5°C above common. It is going to be months earlier than the implications are clear, however some corals are already succumbing. As much as half could die, estimates Neal Cantin of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).