Mapping, Attribution, and Environmental Effects of Woody Plant Encroachment in Grasslands under Climate Change and Human Activities

Woody plant encroachment (WPE) into grasslands has been occurring globally and may be accelerated by climate change and human activities in the future. There are limited studies to document this ecological process and hamper our understanding to make sustainable management approaches for grassland conservation. Here, we improved our previous studies on woody plant encroachment in the grasslands of Oklahoma, USA. This study (1) summarized the detection of woody plant encroachment into grasslands over the typical regions in global through PALSAR, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Landsat images; (2) examined the drivers of woody plant encroachment into grasslands at local and global scales; and (3) developed approaches to quantify the effects of woody plant encroachment into grasslands on carbon, water, and local land surface temperature. The results provide some insights to understand the process and assocaited drivers of woody plant encroachment during the last decades and the roles on carbon and water cycles and the local environment.