[3] He is best known for the universal adaptive strategy theory (UAST) and the twin filter model of community assembly with Simon Pierce, eco-evolutionary dynamics, the unimodal relationship between species richness and site productivity ("humped-back model"), the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, and DST classification (dominants, subordinates and transients).
He then returned to the University of Sheffield and joined the unit of comparative plant ecology, which had been founded in 1961 by professor Ian H.
His CSR theory says that each plant species has a blend of the three strategies that he labels C (competitive), S (stress tolerant) and R (ruderal, or rapid propagation).
He was the first ever recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Medal (2011) for his outstanding contribution to the intellectual development of plant community ecology.
[16] In 2013, the Journal of Ecology published a collection of Grime's most influential papers, for which he wrote a blog post and recorded an accompanying podcast interview.