Perspectives on the scientific legacy of J. Philip Grime

Perhaps as much as any other scientist in the 20th century, J.P. Grime transformed the study of plant ecology and helped shepherd the field toward international prominence as a nexus of ideas related to global environmental change. Editors at the Journal of Ecology asked a group of senior plant ecologists to comment on Grime's scientific legacy. This commentary piece includes individual responses of 14 scientists from around the world attesting to Grime's foundational role in plant functional ecology, including his knack for sparking controversy, his unique approach to theory formulation involving clever experiments and standardized trait measurements of large numbers of species, and the continued impact of his work on ecological science and policy.

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[10]  S. Schmidtlein,et al.  Deep learning and citizen science enable automated plant trait predictions from photographs , 2021, Scientific Reports.

[11]  H. Safford,et al.  Productivity modifies the effects of fire severity on understory diversity. , 2021, Ecology.

[12]  L. Kooistra,et al.  The role of soils in habitat creation, maintenance and restoration , 2021, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

[13]  T. Kuyper,et al.  An integrated framework of plant form and function: The belowground perspective. , 2021, The New phytologist.

[14]  R. Xie,et al.  eDNA metabarcoding revealed differential structures of aquatic communities in a dynamic freshwater ecosystem shaped by habitat heterogeneity. , 2021, Environmental research.

[15]  J. Fridley,et al.  Professor John Philip Grime, FRS (1935-2021). , 2021, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[16]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Functional trait effects on ecosystem stability: assembling the jigsaw puzzle. , 2021, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[17]  Sarah J. Bourlat,et al.  Unearthing the Potential of Soil eDNA Metabarcoding—Towards Best Practice Advice for Invertebrate Biodiversity Assessment , 2021, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

[18]  K. Thompson,et al.  J. Philip Grime (1935–2021) , 2021, Nature Ecology & Evolution.

[19]  R. Goodacre,et al.  Root functional traits explain root exudation rate and composition across a range of grassland species , 2021, Journal of Ecology.

[20]  Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,et al.  Root traits as drivers of plant and ecosystem functioning: current understanding, pitfalls and future research needs. , 2020, The New phytologist.

[21]  Juan C. Rocha,et al.  Set ambitious goals for biodiversity and sustainability , 2020, Science.

[22]  E. Schulze,et al.  Plant traits alone are poor predictors of ecosystem properties and long-term ecosystem functioning , 2020, Nature Ecology & Evolution.

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[24]  K. Dehnen‐Schmutz,et al.  An ecological future for weed science to sustain crop production and the environment. A review , 2020, Agronomy for Sustainable Development.

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[26]  Meghan L. Avolio,et al.  Mass ratio effects underlie ecosystem responses to environmental change , 2020, Journal of Ecology.

[27]  Denis Bastianelli,et al.  TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access. , 2019, Global change biology.

[28]  P. Balvanera,et al.  Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change , 2019, Science.

[29]  D. Doak,et al.  Incorporating intraspecific variation into species distribution models improves distribution predictions, but cannot predict species traits for a wide‐spread plant species , 2019, Ecography.

[30]  F. Maestre,et al.  Phylogenetic, functional, and taxonomic richness have both positive and negative effects on ecosystem multifunctionality , 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[31]  Arshad Ali.  Forest stand structure and functioning: Current knowledge and future challenges , 2019, Ecological Indicators.

[32]  R. Gargiulo,et al.  Phylogeography and post‐glacial dynamics in the clonal‐sexual orchid Cypripedium calceolus L. , 2019, Journal of Biogeography.

[33]  C. Wirth,et al.  The Future of Complementarity: Disentangling Causes from Consequences. , 2019, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[34]  Heleen de Coninck,et al.  Technical Summary. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways , 2018 .

[35]  Eoin L. Brodie,et al.  Defining trait-based microbial strategies with consequences for soil carbon cycling under climate change , 2018, The ISME Journal.

[36]  J. Pausas.  Generalized fire response strategies in plants and animals , 2018, Oikos.

[37]  C. Violle,et al.  Climate as a driver of adaptive variations in ecological strategies in Arabidopsis thaliana , 2018, bioRxiv.

[38]  G. Bonan,et al.  Climate, ecosystems, and planetary futures: The challenge to predict life in Earth system models , 2018, Science.

[39]  J. Grace,et al.  Is biotic resistance enhanced by natural variation in diversity , 2017 .

[40]  Fabian Ewald Fassnacht,et al.  Linking plant strategies and plant traits derived by radiative transfer modelling , 2017 .

[41]  A. Wingler,et al.  Classification of intra‐specific variation in plant functional strategies reveals adaptation to climate , 2017, Annals of botany.

[42]  E. Borer,et al.  A decade of insights into grassland ecosystem responses to global environmental change , 2017, Nature Ecology &Evolution.

[43]  G. B. Deyn.  Plant life history and above–belowground interactions: missing links , 2017 .

[44]  Nicolas Gross,et al.  Functional trait diversity maximizes ecosystem multifunctionality , 2017, Nature Ecology &Evolution.

[45]  J. Keeley,et al.  Flammability as an ecological and evolutionary driver , 2017 .

[46]  Angela Lausch,et al.  Assessing the functional signature of heathland landscapes via hyperspectral remote sensing , 2017 .

[47]  J. P. Grime,et al.  A global method for calculating plant CSR ecological strategies applied across biomes world‐wide , 2017 .

[48]  A. Hendry,et al.  Eco-evolutionary dynamics , 2016, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[49]  A. Weigelt,et al.  Plant–soil feedbacks: role of plant functional group and plant traits , 2016 .

[50]  Jason D. Fridley,et al.  Longer growing seasons shift grassland vegetation towards more-productive species , 2016 .

[51]  T. M. Bezemer,et al.  Soil inoculation steers restoration of terrestrial ecosystems , 2016, Nature Plants.

[52]  M. Bradford,et al.  Where, when and how plant-soil feedback matters in a changing world , 2016 .

[53]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Drivers of vegetation change in grasslands of the Sheffield region, northern England, between 1965 and 2012/13 , 2016 .

[54]  Ellen I. Damschen,et al.  Integrative modelling reveals mechanisms linking productivity and plant species richness , 2016, Nature.

[55]  Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,et al.  The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset , 2015, Nature.

[56]  Ellen I. Damschen,et al.  Plant communities on infertile soils are less sensitive to climate change. , 2015, Annals of botany.

[57]  Duccio Rocchini,et al.  Will remote sensing shape the next generation of species distribution models? , 2015 .

[58]  Dominique Gravel,et al.  A common framework for identifying linkage rules across different types of interactions , 2015, bioRxiv.

[59]  S. Harrison,et al.  What Are Species Pools and When Are They Important , 2014 .

[60]  P. V. van Bodegom,et al.  A fully traits-based approach to modeling global vegetation distribution , 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[61]  F. Chapin,et al.  Approaches to defining a planetary boundary for biodiversity , 2014 .

[62]  Ellen I. Damschen,et al.  Patterns of seed dispersal syndromes on serpentine soils: examining the roles of habitat patchiness, soil infertility and correlated functional traits , 2014 .

[63]  P. Reich.  The world‐wide ‘fast–slow’ plant economics spectrum: a traits manifesto , 2014 .

[64]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Intraspecific functional differentiation suggests local adaptation to long‐term climate change in a calcareous grassland , 2014 .

[65]  S. Harrison,et al.  Climate interacts with soil to produce beta diversity in Californian plant communities. , 2013, Ecology.

[66]  Sandra Lavorel,et al.  A novel framework for linking functional diversity of plants with other trophic levels for the quantification of ecosystem services , 2013 .

[67]  Ellen I. Damschen,et al.  Endemic plant communities on special soils: early victims or hardy survivors of climate change? , 2012 .

[68]  S. Harrison,et al.  Temporal variability in California grasslands: soil type and species functional traits mediate response to precipitation. , 2012, Ecology.

[69]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The Evolutionary Strategies that Shape Ecosystems , 2012 .

[70]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The Evolutionary Strategies that Shape Ecosystems: Grime/The Evolutionary Strategies that Shape Ecosystems , 2012 .

[71]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Soil heterogeneity buffers community response to climate change in species‐rich grassland , 2011 .

[72]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Community and ecosystem effects of intraspecific genetic diversity in grassland microcosms of varying species diversity. , 2010, Ecology.

[73]  Ken Thompson,et al.  Contribution of acidification and eutrophication to declines in species richness of calcifuge grasslands along a gradient of atmospheric nitrogen deposition , 2010 .

[74]  Lindsay A. Turnbull,et al.  Biology, chance, or history? The predictable reassembly of temperate grassland communities. , 2010, Ecology.

[75]  S. Higgins,et al.  Impacts of climate change on the vegetation of Africa: an adaptive dynamic vegetation modelling approach , 2009 .

[76]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Long-term resistance to simulated climate change in an infertile grassland , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[77]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Incorporating plant functional diversity effects in ecosystem service assessments , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[78]  Kara A. Moore,et al.  Plant competition varies with community composition in an edaphically complex landscape. , 2007, Ecology.

[79]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The role of genotypic diversity in determining grassland community structure under constant environmental conditions , 2007 .

[80]  C. Violle,et al.  Let the concept of trait be functional , 2007 .

[81]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Trait convergence and trait divergence in herbaceous plant communities: Mechanisms and consequences , 2006 .

[82]  Mark G. Tjoelker,et al.  Universal scaling of respiratory metabolism, size and nitrogen in plants , 2006, Nature.

[83]  Nina Buchmann,et al.  Overyielding in experimental grassland communities - irrespective of species pool or spatial scale , 2005 .

[84]  D. Wardle,et al.  Ecological Linkages Between Aboveground and Belowground Biota , 2004, Science.

[85]  H. Safford,et al.  Fire effects on plant diversity in serpentine vs. sandstone chaparral , 2004 .

[86]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Effects of genetic impoverishment on plant community diversity , 2003 .

[87]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem functioning from plant traits: revisiting the Holy Grail , 2002 .

[88]  David A. Wardle,et al.  Communities and Ecosystems: Linking the Aboveground and Belowground Components , 2002 .

[89]  J. Lovett-Doust,et al.  Plant strategies, vegetation processes, and ecosystem properties , 2002 .

[90]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Plant traits and temporal scale: evidence from a 5‐year invasion experiment using native species , 2001 .

[91]  P. Chesson.  Mechanisms of Maintenance of Species Diversity , 2000 .

[92]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The effects of trophic structure and soil fertility on the assembly of plant communities: a microcosm experiment , 2000 .

[93]  William G. Lee,et al.  C-S-R triangle theory: community-level predictions, tests, evaluation of criticisms, and relation to other theories , 2000 .

[94]  J. P. Grime,et al.  No consistent effect of plant diversity on productivity. , 2000, Science.

[95]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The response of two contrasting limestone grasslands to simulated climate change. , 2000, Science.

[96]  Mark A. Davis,et al.  Fluctuating resources in plant communities: a general theory of invasibility , 2000 .

[97]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Benefits of plant diversity to ecosystems: immediate, filter and founder effects , 1998 .

[98]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The impact of elevated CO2 on plant-herbivore interactions: experimental evidence of moderating effects at the community level , 1998, Oecologia.

[99]  Mark Westoby,et al.  A leaf-height-seed (LHS) plant ecology strategy scheme , 1998, Plant and Soil.

[100]  J. P. Grime.  Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: The Debate Deepens , 1997, Science.

[101]  K. Thompson,et al.  Integrated screening validates primary axes of specialisation in plants , 1997 .

[102]  Ken Thompson,et al.  Evidence of a causal connection between anti-herbivore defence and the decomposition rate of leaves , 1996 .

[103]  J. P. Grime,et al.  An Experimental Study of Plant Community Invasibility , 1996 .

[104]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Testing predictions of the resistance and resilience of vegetation subjected to extreme events , 1995 .

[105]  R. Steneck,et al.  Are Functional Classifications Different for Marine vs Terrestrial Plants? A Reply to Grime , 1995 .

[106]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Evidence of a feedback mechanism limiting plant response to elevated carbon dioxide , 1993, Nature.

[107]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Evolution of Suites of Traits in Response to Environmental Stress , 1993, The American Naturalist.

[108]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Shoot thrust and its role in plant competition , 1992 .

[109]  P. Grubb.  positive distrust in simplicity--lessons from plant defences and from competition among plants and among animals , 1992 .

[110]  D. Goldberg,et al.  Patterns and Consequences of Interspecific Competition in Natural Communities: A Review of Field Experiments with Plants , 1992, The American Naturalist.

[111]  J. P. Grime,et al.  A trade-off between scale and precision in resource foraging , 1991, Oecologia.

[112]  Steward T. A. Pickett,et al.  The ecological concept of disturbance and its expression at various hierarchical levels , 1989 .

[113]  T. R. E. Southwood,et al.  Tactics, strategies and templets* , 1988 .

[114]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Floristic diversity in a model system using experimental microcosms , 1987, Nature.

[115]  R. Ricklefs,et al.  Community Diversity: Relative Roles of Local and Regional Processes , 1987, Science.

[116]  P. White,et al.  The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics , 1986 .

[117]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Resource Availability and Plant Antiherbivore Defense , 1985, Science.

[118]  H. Cornell.  Local and Regional Richness of Cynipine Gall Wasps on California Oaks , 1985 .

[119]  M. Fenner.  RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SEED WEIGHT, ASH CONTENT AND SEEDLING GROWTH IN TWENTY‐FOUR SPECIES OF COMPOSITAE , 1983 .

[120]  D. Hodáňová.  Plant strategies and vegetation processes , 1981, Biologia Plantarum.

[121]  F. S. Chapin,et al.  The Mineral Nutrition of Wild Plants , 1980 .

[122]  F. Bazzaz.  The Physiological Ecology of Plant Succession , 1979 .

[123]  J. Harper.  Population Biology of Plants , 1979 .

[124]  M. Huston.  A General Hypothesis of Species Diversity , 1979, The American Naturalist.

[125]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Evidence for the Existence of Three Primary Strategies in Plants and Its Relevance to Ecological and Evolutionary Theory , 1977, The American Naturalist.

[126]  P. Grubb.  THE MAINTENANCE OF SPECIES‐RICHNESS IN PLANT COMMUNITIES: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE REGENERATION NICHE , 1977 .

[127]  Roderick Hunt,et al.  Relative growth-rate: its range and adaptive significance in a local flora. , 1975 .

[128]  J. P. Grime.  Vegetation classification by reference to strategies , 1974, Nature.

[129]  J. P. Grime,et al.  An ecological atlas of grassland plants , 1974 .

[130]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Competitive Exclusion in Herbaceous Vegetation , 1973, Nature.

[131]  J. A. Neldee.  New Kinds of Systematic Designs for Spacing Experiments , 1962 .

[132]  C. Darwin,et al.  On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection , 1858 .

[133]  Andrea Wulf,et al.  The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World , 2015 .

[134]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: An Issue in Ecology , 2000 .

[135]  E. Meijaard,et al.  Ecology and Natural History , 1999 .

[136]  P. Grubb.  A reassessment of the strategies of plants which cope with shortages of resources , 1998 .

[137]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Top-down control and its effect on the biomass and composition of three grasses at high and low soil fertility in outdoor microcosms , 1998, Oecologia.

[138]  Thomas M. Smith,et al.  Plant functional types : their relevance to ecosystem properties and global change , 1998 .

[139]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Methods in Comparative Plant Ecology , 1993, Springer Netherlands.

[140]  J. P. Grime.  Vegetation Functional Classification Systems as Approaches to Predicting and Quantifying Global Vegetation Change , 1993 .

[141]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Integrated Responses of Plants to Stress , 1991 .

[142]  F. Woodward,et al.  Functional Approaches to Predicting the Ecological Effects of Global Change , 1991 .

[143]  J. Grace.  A clarification of the debate between Grime and Tilman , 1991 .

[144]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  The Ecology and Economics of Storage in Plants , 1990 .

[145]  A. Davy.  Comparative plant ecology: A functional approach to common British species , 1990 .

[146]  M. Austin.  Plant strategies and the dynamics and structure of plant communities , 1989 .

[147]  H. Lieth.  The Population Structure of Vegetation , 1985, Handbook of Vegetation Science.

[148]  P. Grubb.  Plant Populations and Vegetation in Relation to Habitat, Disturbance and Competition: Problems of Generalization , 1985 .