Scientists at Acadia University in Nova Scotia hope new research on saxifrage will help them better understand the links between the critically endangered plant species and the sandy wastelands of the Annapolis Valley.
The rock rose, also known as the Canada frost, grows in dry, sandy, and acidic soil. However, its natural habitat has been reduced by 97 percent due to agriculture, transportation, and residential development, leading to a massive population decline.
Kendra Sampson of the KC Irving Environmental Science Center in Acadia, who led the research, said she collected seeds and sand from the plant’s natural habitat and used them to propagate it in the lab.
“This plant is a small piece of a bigger picture,” Sampson said. “We look at individual plants, but all of them are the primary target of the mandate to maintain biodiversity in these ecosystems.”
The study found that a type of fungus, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), form mutually beneficial relationships with plant roots by helping them absorb water and nutrients from the acidic soils of sandy areas.
“[AMF] “They form a root-like structure that is much smaller in diameter than plant roots,” she said. “It extends much further into the soil and can store nutrients for plants, so phosphorus or nitrogen, and even take up water for plants.”
Sampson hopes the study will help conservationists better understand the connections between species that inhabit the sandbarrens and how preserving one species can benefit all others.
She added that the specimens she grew in the lab could be replanted in the wild and the mushrooms could be used as a green alternative to fertilizers.
The sandbars of the Annapolis Valley are extremely fragile ecosystems, where tall vegetation depends on natural forest fires to survive.
Species living there trade the nutrient-rich soil for bright sunlight, which is why AMF is so important to any plant growing in this sandy, acidic soil, Sampson said.
Alain Belliveau, collections manager at the EC Smith Herbarium in Acadia, was part of a team of specialists who developed Nova Scotia’s Rockrose Recovery Plan in 2021.
He monitors the plant and studies population trends every few years to see how the sandy wasteland is doing.
“A big part of this is that the plants we call endangered species are the tip of the iceberg,” Belliveau said.
“The rock rose is so rare and endangered that we see it as a representation of the ecosystem as a whole.”
Belliveau hopes that more research like this will lead to better protection for rock rose and other threatened species in Nova Scotia’s increasingly sparse sandbars.
He said he would like to see provincial governments, universities and non-profit organizations invest in more research as they struggle to obtain funding and staff.
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us,” he said.
