Before revision: Dominance by annual species is commonly viewed as a transient state in plant succession preceding eventual perennial dominance . However, circumstantial evidence suggests that annual-perennial interactions can cause priority effects, allowing persistent annual dominance when annuals are initially more common than perennials.
After revision: Dominance by annual plants has traditionally been considered a brief early stage of ecological succession preceding inevitable dominance by competitive perennials. A more recent, alternative view suggests that interactions between annuals and perennials can result in priority effects, allowing persistent annual dominance when annuals are initially more common than perennials.