John Philip Grime. 30 April 1935—19 April 2021

Abstract

John Philip ‘Phil’ Grime developed fundamental theory in plant ecology that emerged from a lifetime of fieldwork and experimental studies in the Sheffield region, South Yorkshire, UK. His approach was an unusual combination of observation, experiment and theory: he conducted detailed, intensive observations of natural communities, alongside experimental manipulation of those communities and simulated ‘microcosms’ in the service of formulating general rules (‘strategies’) by which plants evolve with respect to their environment. In this way, Grime was one of several key figures that propelled plant ecology away from descriptive methods focusing on vegetation composition and toward a science more integrated with other fields, including evolutionary biology and Earth science. Grime's investigative approach was an inspiration for the modern field of global change biology, and, by focusing on understanding the contrasting roles species and their traits play in the functioning of ecosystems, marked the beginning of the field of plant functional ecology. For much of his career Grime held the post of full professor (and in retirement, emeritus professor of ecology) at the University of Sheffield, where he also served as the director of the Unit of Comparative Plant Ecology and of the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Laboratory. Awarded an honorary doctorate by Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and a foreign membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Grime was the first person awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Award of the International Association for Vegetation Science.