The worst year-long drought in Texas will have a lasting impact on the entire eco-system, according to wildlife biologists.
"It has a compound effect on a multitude of species and organisms and habitat types because of the way that it's chained and linked together," said Jeffrey Bonner, a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The lack of moisture will harm everything from the plants to the predators at the top of the food chain.
Since January, Texas has only gotten about 6 inches of rain, compared with a norm of about 13 inches, making it the most severe one-year drought on record.
Footprints mark the bank of a partially dried-up pond near downtown Dallas, Aug. 1, 2011. REUTERSA cryogenic tank from the Space Shuttle Columbia is shown in this handout photo released to Reuters Aug. 3, 2011. The tank was discovered in an evaporating lake bed on the shoreline of Lake Nacogdoches in east Texas, part of debris from the 2003 Columbia disaster.REUTERSA goose feeds on the bank of a dried-up creek bed near Lake Arlington, in Texas, August, 2011. Sticky heat smothered much of the country's midsection as hotter than usual temperatures continued to roast parts of the nation.REUTERSA mussel shell lies on the bank of a dried-up creek bed near Lake Arlington, in Texas, Aug. 1, 2011. REUTERSTamika Davis wipes her face while waiting for a bus in Dallas, Aug. 1, 2011. Temperatures in the Dallas area have topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) for more than 30 consecutive days, with no relief in sight, according to the National Weather Service.REUTERSSome of the1.5 million bats living beneath the Congress Street Bridge near downtown Austin, Texas, emerge at night in search of food, July 27, 2011. The drought in Texas has destroyed crops and killed pests that the Mexican free-tailed bats eat. REUTERS
