“…Over the past century, woody plants have been observed worldwide to be increasing in abundance and density in grasslands and savannas, a process termed "woody plant encroachment" (WPE; Archer, Vavra, Laycock, & Pieper, 1994;Archer, 2010;Scott, Jenerette, Potts, & Huxman, 2009). Ecological succession of grasslands to woodlands may alter ecosystem structure and function and can threaten ecosystem services (Msanne et al, 2017;Petrie, Collins, Swann, Ford, & Litvak, 2015). For example, an increase of woody plants in grasslands has been reported to alter animal habitats (Coppedge, Engle, Masters, & Gregory, 2004) and reduce biological diversity (Ratajczak, Nippert, & Collins, 2012;Van Els, Will, Palmer, & Hickman, 2010), forage, and livestock production (Anadon, Sala, Turner, & Bennett, 2014).…”