Page 231 - Plant Canada 2024 Proceeding

PLANT CANADA 2024

Arctic prostrate shrubs are some of the relatively few plants that can survive the extreme conditions of
Canada’s North, where they dominate tundra heath ecosystems. As arctic temperatures continue to
increase, the response of prostrate shrubs to changing environmental conditions will lay the groundwork
for new succession regimes in the tundra. Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) act as ecosystem engineers in
tundra heath, where their den sites exhibit increased soil nutrients, atypical plant communities, and
deeper snow. We treated tundra heath vegetation plots with N and P fertilizers and/or increased snow
depth to examine how these den communities develop, and here we present how these treatments
affected the leaf traits of 5 dominant prostrate shrub species (Arctostaphylos rubra, Dryas integrifolia,
Rhododendron lapponicum, Shepherdia canadensis, Vaccinium uliginosum) after 5 years. We used
ANOVA tests and principal components analyses (PCA) of leaf soluble protein content, leaf carbohydrate
content, and specific leaf area (SLA) to show responses in leaf phenotype and abundance-weighted site
means to evaluate these dominant species as a group. We found that the SLA of prostrate shrubs in plots
that received fertilizer was ~50% higher than those in controls and this effect was doubled in plots with
both fertilizer and snow fence treatments. The PCAs show an inverse relationship between SLA and
soluble leaf protein content and highlight the effect of snow depth on leaf phenotype when nutrients are
not limiting. The increase in specific leaf area is correlated with differences in the normalized difference
vegetation index (NDVI) of each treatment plot, which shows significantly higher NDVI in all plots that
received fertilizer compared to those that did not. Our results show that some arctic prostrate shrubs
exhibit a productive phenotypic response to limiting nutrients independent from annual temperature and
we add to the growing body of literature recognizing SLA and NDVI as key plant functional traits in a
warming Arctic.

[P56] COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE FOR BUILDING HERBARIUM RESILIENCE, RELEVANCE, AND
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RELATIONSHIPS. Nadia Cavallin and Jennifer Doubt . Royal Botanical Garden, 680 Plains Road West,
Burlington, ON, Canada, L7T 4H4; and Canadian Museum of Nature, 1740 chemin Pink, Gatineau, QC,
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Canada, J9J 3N7
Correspondence to: ncavallin@rbg.ca

Herbaria vary in their histories and present-day activities, but many record the past two centuries or more
of collecting plants, lichens, fungi and/or algae. They represent the cultures and priorities of the (mostly
past) collectors and administrations that built them. Many institutional collections grew from colonial
activities, through extractive and/or elitist practices, for exclusive purposes. Their holdings and methods
still retain this history, creating barriers to new relationships and approaches, and limiting applications
beyond those for which herbaria were originally conceived.

The power of herbaria as resources to address increasingly urgent, present-day challenges such as
biodiversity loss, environmental change, and nature deficit - and their impacts on human health - grows
with the continuous length of the specimen timeline, from past to future. With time, however, the
perceived value of herbaria in many (particularly academic) institutions has diminished. Using essentially
the same technology to collect and preserve specimens that were used 200 years ago, with holdings that
reflect outdated worldviews, and with progressively fewer links to current programs or academic courses,
herbaria can be wrongly dismissed as stagnant relics.

The key to resolving this disconnect lies, we believe, in relationships. The health and longevity of herbaria
rely on the strength and diversity of their community relationships and on working in relationship to
continually increase the ongoing relevance of their holdings.

With this poster, we invite interest in creating a community of practice oriented to building and sharing the
public value of herbarium collections by diversifying and strengthening relationships, including
communities that have been historically excluded. We propose to initiate a forum for sharing challenges,
resources (literature, examples, experience), and ideas, and in doing so to support one another in
building resilience and relevance within our networks of herbaria.

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