Revising the global biogeography of plant life cycles

Plants exhibit two primary life cycles – annual and perennial – which vary in their effects on ecosystem functioning. Here, we assembled a database of 235,000 species to assess the worldwide distribution of plant life cycles. We found that annuals are half as common as previously thought (6% of all plant species). Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates that annuals are favored under hot and dry conditions, especially under a prolonged dry season. Strikingly, this pattern remains consistent among different families, indicating convergent evolution. Moreover, we show that increasing climate variability and anthropogenic disturbance further increase the favorability of annuals. Overall, our analysis raises concerns for the future of ecosystem services provided by perennials because the ongoing climate and land-use changes are leading to an annuals-dominated world. One-Sentence Summary This extensive update to plant life cycle biogeography deciphers their dependence on temperature, rainfall, and disturbance.