Forests are among the most long-established habitats on the planet, forming their delicately balanced ecosystems over centuries — and a new study in light of Texas’s ongoing drought proves how quickly they can be decimated. According to the Texas Forest Service, as many as 500 million trees in the state — roughly 10 percent of the forests there — have been killed within the last year alone as a result of 2011’s bizarre lack of rainfall. To make matters worse, the massive die-off may just be the first in a long line as climatologists predict more severe drought to come as climate change worsens over the next century.

Forestry officials recently surveyed trees throughout 63 million acres of drought-riddled Texas and say what they found that months of record heat and stiflingly arid conditioned have left anywhere between 100 million to as many as half-a-billion trees dead. Texas Forestry Service directory Tom Boggus calls the findings ‘very shocking’, adding that they’ve witnessed ‘a significant change in the landscape.’

According to the American-Statesmen, the loss of plant-life in Texas due to the drought may be worse yet. The study did not factor in the millions of trees that perished due to drought-related wildfires, […]