Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects.We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives. Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) and DIVERSITAS, the TRY database (TRY-not an acronym, rather a statement of sentiment; https ://www.try-db.org; Kattge et al., 2011) was proposed with the explicit assignment to improve the availability and accessibility of plant trait data for ecology and earth system sciences. The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) offered to host the database and the different groups joined forces for this community-driven program. Two factors were key to the success of TRY: the support and trust of leaders in the field of functional plant ecology submitting large databases and the long-term funding by the Max Planck Society, the MPI-BGC and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, which has enabled the continuous development of the TRY database.

A novel and non-ODS-based (ODS = ozone-depleting substance) preparation of 2-chloro-2,2-difluoroacetophenone (1) was achieved in high yield by using 2,2,2-trifluoroacetophenone as the starting material. Compound 1 was found to act as a good difluorocarbene reagent, which readily reacts with a variety of structurally diverse phenol derivatives 4 in the presence of potassium hydroxide or potassium carbonate to produce aryl difluoromethyl ethers 5 in good yields. This new and easy-to-handle synthetic methodology offers an environmentally friendly alternative to other Freon- or Halon-based difluoromethylating approaches.

Chlorodifluoromethyl phenyl sulfone, a previously unknown compound that can be readily prepared from non-ODS-based precursors, was found to act as a robust difluorocarbene reagent for O- and N-difluoromethylations.

Since 1995, Me(3)SiCF(2)H has been widely believed to be an inefficient difluoromethylating agent, which requires harsh reaction conditions to cleave its rather inert Si-CF(2)H bond. However, it has now been found that, by using a proper Lewis base activator, Me(3)SiCF(2)H can efficiently difluoromethylate various aldehydes, ketones, and imines to give the corresponding products in good to excellent yields at room temperature or even at -78 °C.

Cu-mediated fluoroalkylation reactions with iododifluoroacetamides 1 have been systematically investigated. It was found that three types of reactions may coexist in Cu-mediated reactions between iododifluoroacetamides and aryl/alkenyl iodides: cross-coupling, intramolecular cyclization, and homocoupling reactions. The selectivity among these three types of reactions could be controlled by tuning the substituents on the nitrogen atom of iododifluoroacetamides, and/or by removing the cross-coupling reaction partner (aryl/alkenyl halides). The general rule is as follows: (a) in the presence of proper aryl/alkenyl iodides, the cross-coupling products 2 (or 6) are generally formed as the major products; (b) in the absence of aryl/alkenyl iodides, and when R(1) = alkyl and R(2) = aryl groups, or when R(1) = R(2) = aryl groups, the intramolecular cyclization products 3 can be formed predominantly; and (c) in the absence of aryl/alkenyl iodides, and when R(1) = R(2) = alkyl groups, or when R(1) = H and R(2) = alkyl, aryl groups, the homocoupling products 4 can be formed dominantly. Our experimental results also indicate that in many cases when cross-coupling, homocoupling, and intramolecular cyclization reactions coexist in the Cu-mediated reaction system, the reactivity decreases in the following order: cross-coupling > intramolecular cyclization > homocoupling.

[reaction: see text] Highly stereoselective nucleophilic monofluoromethylation of (R)-(tert-butanesulfinyl)imines with fluoromethyl phenyl sulfone was achieved to afford alpha-monofluoromethylamines with a nonchelation-controlled stereoselectivity mode. By using the same chemistry, (R)-(tert-butanesulfinyl)imines bearing a terminal tosylate (OTs) group can be converted to alpha-monofluoromethylated cyclic secondary amines with high stereoselectivity.

Mongolia is an important country in the Economic Corridor of China-Mongolia-Russia, a deep understanding of the coupling relationship between urbanization and the eco-environment in Mongolia is meaningful to achieve green development of the Belt and Road. The entropy method and coupling coordination degree model were integrated to evaluate the coupling coordination degree between urbanization and the eco-environment in Mongolia during 2000−2016. The results showed that the coupling coordination degree between urbanization and the eco-environment in Mongolia was generally at the stage of seriously unbalanced development, and that the main contributor of the urbanization and the eco-environment subsystem were demographic urbanization and eco-environment endowment, respectively. The southern part of Mongolia central zone should be paid more attention due to the lower degree of coupling coordination between urbanization and the eco-environment. To promote the healthy urbanization development in Mongolia, six-layer eco-city establishing green development pattern is proposed to provide scientific support for Mongolia.

Deterioration of the urban thermal environment, especially in megacities with intensive populations and high densities of impervious surfaces, is a global issue resulting from rapid urbanization. The effects of landscape patterns on the urban thermal environment within a single area or single period have been well documented. Few studies, however, have explored whether the effects can be adapted to various cities at different urbanization stages. This paper investigated the variations of these effects in the five largest and highly urbanized megacities of China from 1990 to 2020 using various geospatial approaches, including concentric buffer analysis, correlation analysis, and hierarchical ridge regression models. The results indicated that the effects of landscape patterns on the urban thermal environment were greatly variable at different urbanization stages. Although landscape composition was more important than landscape configuration in determining the urban thermal environment, the standard coefficients of composition metrics continuously decreased from 1990 to 2020. However, configuration metrics, such as patch density, edge density, and shape complexity, could affect the land surface temperature (LST) to a larger extent at the highly urbanized stage. The urbanization process could also affect the cooling effect of urban green space. At the initial stage of rapid urban expansion in approximately 2000, urban green space explained the most variation in LST, with a value as high as 10%. To maximize the cooling effect, the spatial arrangement of urban green space should be highlighted in the region that was 10–15 km from the city center, where the mean LST experienced a significant decline. These results may provide deeper insights into improving the urban thermal environment by targeted strategies in optimizing landscape patterns for areas at different urbanization stages.