Trichomycete prevalence in Thomas Brook, Nova Scotia, exposed to different levels of human activity

The Thomas Brook in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, was the focus of an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada wastershed evaluation of beneficial management practices (WEBs) project from 2004–2008. The stream is impacted by human activities along its course, with residential influences and farming operations. The water quality in Thomas Brook was assessed in 2006, and the current study done in 2011–2012 used the same standard invertebrate metrics to measure water quality. This project also examined the prevalence of gut endosymbionts (trichomycetes) in aquatic invertebrates to determine whether water quality affects this community of obligate microorganisms in their hosts. The water quality was improved in Thomas Brook in 2011/2012 compared with that measured in the earlier study. There were 34 taxa of trichomycetes recorded in benthic insects in the stream, including two new species. The trichomycete community was rich in dipteran hosts (midges and black fly larvae), but the prevalence of gut fungi in ephemeropteran (mayfly) nymphs in the system was low, perhaps due to the impact of human activities on water quality.

Viticultural Performance of Hybrids and Vitis vinifera Varieties Established in Annapolis Valley (Nova Scotia)

(1) Background: Cold-hardy interspecific hybrid grapes (CIHG) are well adapted to the Annapolis Valley edaphoclimatic conditions. The main characteristics of CIHG are the high bud hardiness tolerance to winter frost, the short growing cycle, and the good tolerance to cryptogamic diseases. Based on local experience, the Vitis vinifera varieties should be grown in the warmest areas of the Annapolis Valley (Nova Scotia, Canada). Despite this, there is little scientific evidence that shows the viticultural behavior of these varieties under the edaphoclimatic conditions of this valley. (2) Methods: Thus, the aim of this research was to evaluate the viticultural behavior of two CIHG (L’Acadie and New York Muscat) and three V. vinifera varieties (Chardonnay, Riesling, and Pinot Noir) growing in the Annapolis Valley over three consecutive seasons. (3) Results: The coldest season (2019) produced a delay in grapevine phenology of at least 18 days for budburst compared to the warm seasons (2017 and 2018). In addition, in the coldest season from budburst to bloom the duration decreased compared to the rest of the seasons. The main phenological stages started earlier in L’Acadie than in the V. vinifera varieties. L’Acadie presented lower N petiole content than the V. vinifera varieties, which conditioned shoot growth in the studied seasons. CIHG presented low B petiole levels and produced musts with low malic acid content, while V. vinifera varieties produced musts with high N content. L’Acadie was the only variety that could bud out, and differentially produced fruit after the spring frost of −2 to −3 °C for 2 h in 2018 in this trial. (4) Conclusions: L’Acadie, and to a lesser extent, Riesling, hold an interesting adaptation to the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Annapolis Valley.

A New Look at Cultivar Preference in Hoplocampa testudinea (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae) on Apple in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada

(1) Background: The European apple sawfly, Hoplocampa testudinea Klug (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), can be an economically important pest in eastern Canada and shows preference for apple cultivars in Nova Scotia, Canada. We hypothesized that this preference could be due to oviposition by female H. testudinea (preference-performance hypothesis) during the bloom period or differential larval survival during development due to fruitlet physicochemical properties. (2) Methods: Fifteen commercial and experimental apple (Malusdomestica Borkh.; Rosaceae) cultivars located at the Kentville Research and Development Centre (Kentville, Nova Scotia) were chosen and examined for H. testudinea oviposition, larval performance during fruitlet development, fruitlet physicochemical properties and damage assessment at harvest from 2016–2019, inclusive. (3) Results: H. testudinea showed significant cultivar preference during oviposition, during development and at harvest, but the ranking of these cultivars was not the same throughout the season. Total impact by H. testudinea was consistent for most cultivars over multiple years of the study. (4) Conclusion: Correlation of oviposition with damage provided weak evidence for the preference-performance hypothesis. We propose that this relationship is weak due to differential survival of larvae during development.

Fungal symbionts of endangered Crocanthemum canadense (Cistaceae) in Nova Scotia

Crocanthemum canadense (L.) Britt. (Cistaceae) is critically imperiled in Nova Scotia. The decline of Nova Scotian C. canadense is largely due to the loss of the Annapolis Valley sand barrens habitat. Fungal symbionts may aid in nutrient and water acquisition as well as plant defenses. The role of fungal associations with C. canadense is unknown; our goal was to identify fungal symbionts to inform ongoing conservation research. We isolated fungi from eighteen C. canadense plants collected from Greenwood, Nova Scotia. Using ITS rDNA barcoding of fungal cultures, we identified 58 fungal taxa. ITS2 meta-amplicon barcoding of roots and rhizosphere soil revealed 241 fungi with basidiomycetes accounting for 53.8% of reads. Chaetothyriales sp., Mycetinis scorodonius, Acidomelania panicicola, and Scleroderma citrinum were the most abundant root associates based on meta-amplicon data. We quantified percent root colonization of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) using root staining and microscopy. The average AMF colonization rate of the roots was 29.6% (n=18). We provide a foundation for understanding the fungal community in this declining habitat and the first account of fungal symbionts in the above- and below-ground tissues and rhizosphere of C. canadense. Identifying fungi influencing endangered Nova Scotian C. canadense is valuable for developing conservation strategies.

Buckler, Ernest (1908–1984)

Ernest Buckler (1908–1984) was a walking paradox. Born in the bookless society of poor, rural Nova Scotia, he earned a BA in mathematics and philosophy at Dalhousie University and an MA in philosophy at the University of Toronto, alongside Hugh MacLennan and Northrop Frye respectively, before going back to the Annapolis Valley to farm by day and write by night. He is best known for his pastoral first novel, The Mountain and the Valley (1952), which garnered as high critical acclaim in the US and Canada as the novels published concurrently by established American writers, notably John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Ernest Hemingway’s comeback The Old Man and the Sea. The simultaneous publications illustrate the coexistence of early and late modernisms and their correlation to geopolitical space, notably center and margin. Later hailed as a ‘pioneer in Canadian writing’ by Margaret Laurence and a ‘pathbreaker for the modern Canadian novel’ by Margaret Atwood, Buckler nonetheless refracts the interrogations of modernity beyond national borders and connects with writers and thinkers ranging from Ralph Waldo Emerson to James Joyce, Marcel Proust (see Purdham), and Albert Camus.

Passion or profit: Bloody Creek Vineyard

Synopsis Edward Rowan, 89 year-old patriarch and the Rowan family were trying to decide if they should start a vineyard in the Nova Scotia Annapolis Valley. Edward had a life-long dream of starting a vineyard on this five-acre farm. Edward, his son David and granddaughter Mary along with their respective spouses had agreed to be partners and provide financing to start the vineyard. The time had arrived to make a decision because they had to order the vines by the end of the month. While they have an extended family to provide free labor for planting, pruning and harvesting along with free access to the necessary machinery, they wanted to be sure that they did not lose money on the venture. They recognized the first four to five years would not generate profits, but they wanted to ensure that in the long term the venture would be viable. Research methodology This case was developed from an interview with Donna Rowan, a documentary review of the family’s estimates as well as an interview with the owner of a well-established vineyard in the Annapolis Valley. Secondary sources were used to provide information on the industry and average costs to operate a vineyard. The case uses a partial disguise with respect to the names of family members. The case was tested at the Atlantic Schools of Business student case competition where ten teams from different Atlantic universities participated. The authors were not judges and all suggested changes have been incorporated in the case. Relevant courses and levels The relevant courses are: managerial accounting undergraduate programs; intermediate accounting and entrepreneurship courses in undergraduate programs; second-level accounting and entrepreneurship courses in MBA programs; and professional accounting programs’ CPA.

Apple cultivar preferences by Hoplocampa testudinea (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae) in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada

The European apple sawfly, Hoplocampa testudinea (Klug) (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), is an economically important pest in eastern Canada. Growers can experience significant crop losses as management of this species is difficult because it is present during bloom. As a result, management strategies other than pesticides are required for this pest. Eleven commercial and experimental apple (Malus pumila Miller; Rosaceae) cultivars were studied to evaluate host resistance as a potential management strategy. Preferences were determined using field surveys of adult visitation, larval infestation of apples, damage at harvest, behavioural bioassays, and electrophysiological tests. Significant differences in visitation and infestation were observed. H. testudinea preferred “Zestar!”, “s23-06-153”, and “Pinova” over other cultivars examined. Comparison with subsequent larval counts and damage also suggest differential performance of larvae in several cases, irrespective of the adult preference. Y-tube bioassays and electroanntennography results indicate that olfaction plays a role in cultivar discrimination for this species.

Idyll and Industry: Rethinking the Environmental History of Grand Pré, Nova Scotia

In June 2012, UNESCO named the landscape of Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, a World Heritage Site, as ‘exceptional testimony to a traditional farming settlement created in the seventeenth century by the Acadians in a coastal zone with tides that are among the highest in the world’. Grand Pré is the gateway to the Annapolis Valley, a rare stretch of favourable soils and climate in a largely unarable province. From the early nineteenth century onward, ambitions to make the Valley ‘the Orchard of the Empire’ resulted in some of the most intensive rural development in Atlantic Canada. This transformed the physical, ecological and economic landscape of Nova Scotia profoundly, and became central to its sense of place in the global community. Its fields and orchards also inspired a second industry: tourism, promoting, ironically, a decidedly non- industrial picture of blithe fertility and prosperity. In recent decades, both agriculture and tourism in the region have created a new idyll, one that grafts the language of sustainability onto the pastoral image of apple blossoms, and so successfully draws attention away from the ecological costs and economic health of agriculture in the region. With its focus on pre-industrial Acadian settlement, historical commemoration at Grand Pré has the very real effect of affirming the possibility of local and sustainable agriculture in the area today. But the pré is also part of another history, another set of agricultural practices that followed the Acadians and that still frame most agricultural production in Nova Scotia. This essay offers a second public narrative for Grand Pré, one that treats the site as part of the Annapolis Valley as well as l’ancienne Acadie , part of an industrial landscape as well as an idyllic one. It is only by recognizing both histories that we can really appreciate the realities of modern agriculture and the need for sustainable alternatives.