A survey of mycorrhizal plants on Truelove Lowland, Devon Island, N.W.T., Canada

Abstract

Although mycorrhizal associations are commonly found on roots of most plant species, little is known about the presence or absence of mycorrhizae in arctic regions. In the Canadian High Arctic, roots of 55 herbaceous and woody plant species were examined for mycorrhizae during the summers of 1987 and 1988 on Devon Island, N.W.T. Ectomycorrhizal associations were found on roots of Salix arctica, Dryas integrifolia, and Potentilla hyparctica; ericoid mycorrhizae formed on Cassiope tetragona and Vaccinium uliginosum. Ectomycorrhizal roots were often covered with black hyphae resembling the fungus Cenococcum geophilum; sclerotia characteristic of this fungus were found in soil extracts. Plants expected to have endomycorrhizal associations were apparently nonmycorrhizal in the traditional sense, since no arbuscules, vesicles, or pelotons were found on any roots during two field seasons. Although extensive fungal hyphae were often present on and within roots, these hyphae could not be conclusively identified as endomycorrhizal. Some dark, septate hyphae were present; their function, although unknown, may be beneficial to the host. In a series of greenhouse bioassays using arctic soils, no endomycorrhizal associations developed on test plants. Spores of vesicular–arbuscular fungi were not found in soil extracts. Thus in this survey, only ectomycorrhizal associations were observed, suggesting that the cold, dry winter and cold, wet summer climates in this area of the High Arctic severely limit formation of endomycorrhizae. Key words: roots, fungi, ectomycorrhizae, endomycorrhizae, arctic.