Developing European conservation and mitigation tools for pollination services: approaches of the STEP (Status and Trends of European Pollinators) project

Pollinating insects form a key component of European biodiversity, and provide a vital ecosystem service to crops and wild plants. There is growing evidence of declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, and parallel declines in plants relying upon them. The STEP project (Status and Trends of European Pollinators, 2010-2015, www.stepproject.net) is documenting critical elements in the nature and extent of these declines, examining key functional traits associated with pollination deficits, and developing a Red List for some European pollinator groups. Together these activities are laying the groundwork for future pollinator monitoring programmes. STEP is also assessing the relative importance of potential drivers of pollinator declines, including climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, agrochemicals, pathogens, alien species, light pollution, and their interactions. We are measuring the ecological and economic impacts of declining pollinator services and floral resources, including effects on wild plant populations, crop production and human nutrition. STEP is reviewing existing and potential mitigation options, and providing novel tests of their effectiveness across Europe. Our work is building upon existing and newly developed datasets and models, complemented by spatially-replicated campaigns of field research to fill gaps in current knowledge. Findings are being integrated into a policy-relevant framework to create evidence-based decision support tools. STEP is establishing communication links to a wide range of stakeholders across Europe and beyond, including policy makers, beekeepers, farmers, academics and the general public. Taken together, the STEP research programme aims to improve our understanding of the nature, causes, consequences and potential mitigation of declines in pollination services at local, national, continental and global scales

Aromatic sulfines with nitrilimines. : A regiospecific, non-stereospecific cyclo-addition reaction

Contains fulltext : 142129.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Cyclo-addition reactions of thiofluorenone with nitrones

Thiofluorenone reacts with C-phenyl-N-methylnitrone to give initially a 1,2,5-oxathiazolidine. Spontaneous loss of sulphur monoxide then produces a dipolar species which reacts with a second molecule of thiofluorenone to give 1,2-thiazolidine

Deoxygenation of pyridine N-oxides with sulphur monoxide generated from trans-2,3-diphenylthiiran-1-oxide

Pyridine N-oxides are deoxygenated by sulphur monoxide. Electron withdrawing substituents lower drastically the yields of reduction

INFRARED SPECTRA OF AROMATIC SULPHINES.

Author Institution: Laboratorio del C.N.R. dei Composti Organici Contenenti Eteroatomi, Instituto di Chimica Organica dell'Universita' di BolognaThe molecular structure of aromatic sulphines [FIGURE] $\begin{array}{l}X=Y= -H, -CH_{3}, -OCH_{3}, -Cl\\ \left\{\begin{array}{l}X=-CH_{3}, - OCH_{3}, Cl, -NO_{2}\\Y=-H\end{array}\right.\end{array}$ has been investigated and some characteristic features of these molecules have been observed. Two absorption bands at about $1110 cm^{-1}$ and $1010 cm^{-1}$ are associated with the stretching vibrational modes of the CSO group. Although some degree of coupling certainly has to be present, the experimental characteristics of the band at $1110 cm^{-1}$ suggest that this absorption is mainly due to a SO stretching vibration, while for the band at $1010 cm^{-1}$ a CS vibrational mode is probably involved. A linear relationship between the proton-acceptor capability of the oxygen atom of the CSO group and the Hammett's $\sigma$ constants is also found