My name is Kimberley Simpson and I would describe myself as a plant ecologist and general biology enthusiast! I’m currently a teaching-focused lecturer at the University of York (UK) where I teach a lot of ecology and data analysis, and I finished my PhD last year, which was based at the University of Sheffield (UK).
If I could summarise my research in three words, they would be: grass, traits and fire! Fire is a disturbance that has shaped plant traits and floral communities for over 420 million years, and the history and success of grasses is particularly linked to fire: they experience and fuel the highest fire frequencies on Earth. My PhD research focused on how fire shapes grass traits, particularly those related to flammability and post-fire recovery. This means I got to do lots of fieldwork in South Africa which was an amazing opportunity.
I’ve done a fair bit of #scicomm through various outreach events but this will be my first on social media. I’m excited to be @biotweeps curator for the coming week. Expect lots of plants. And fire. Most likely some birds and insects too. Definitely some fungi. Parasites for sure. And I’m sure my mammalian (canine) companion may get a few mentions too…
I look forward to chatting to you on Twitter this week!
Kim
Twitter: @kim_1801
Biotweeps 