Perspectives on the scientific legacy of J. Philip Grime

Abstract

Perhaps as much as any other scientist in the 20th century, J.P. Grime transformedthe study of plant ecology and helped shepherd the field toward internationalprominence as a nexus of ideas related to global environmental change. Editorsat the Journal of Ecology asked a group of senior plant ecologists to comment onGrime's scientific legacy.2. This commentary piece includes individual responses of 14 scientists from aroundthe world attesting to Grime's foundational role in plant functional ecology, in-cluding his knack for sparking controversy, his unique approach to theory formu-lation involving clever experiments and standardized trait measurements of largenumbers of species, and the continued impact of his work on ecological scienceand policy.