Photo: This giant clam used to sit in a colourful field of corals before March 2016 – now she is alone on the reef slope. No Name reef (Lizard Island region), October 2016. Photo by Greg Torda

More than 25 million years old, the Great Barrier Reef is the earth’s largest living structure and the only one visible from space—and now, after more than 35 years of dire warnings, it has fallen victim to climate change, resulting in mass casualties throughout much of its spectacular ecosystem.

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At 1,400 miles long, the Great Barrier Reef was a model of biodiversity at its finest, home to 2,900 individual coral reefs and 1,050 islands, harboring some 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 species of mollusk, 450 species of coral, 220 species of bird, and 30 species of whales and dolphins, as well the largest breeding ground of green turtles.

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In Wednesday, October 26, 2016, scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland have announced that the dramatic underwater heatwave in 2015-16 has resulted in a massive death toll across the Great Barrier Reef.

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