With the aim of generating a strategy for biocultural conservation, we explore the structure and robustness of the botanical medical systems in the Biosphere Reserve “Bioma Pampa-Quebradas del Norte,” Uruguay, combining ethnobotanical hypotheses and network theory. We report a heterogeneous distribution of knowledge of medicinal plants with a potential limit to the individual knowledge (truncated–power-law). The robustness analysis in the face of alternative potential scenarios of system degradation indicates that the ethnobotanical system presents a high level of resistance to the loss of agents and medicinal plants species, but also a nonlinear response with a threshold of degradation after which an abrupt collapse in system structure is expected. To counter these threats at the Biosphere Reserve, we propose to promote ethnobotanical knowledge transmission and sustainable development in rural areas, and to encourage the development of strategies for the conservation of medicinal plants.

为了制定一种生物文化保护战略，我们结合民族植物学假说和网络理论，探索了乌拉圭生物圈保护区“ Bioma Pampa-Quebradas del Norte”中植物医学系统的结构和健壮性。我们报告了药用植物知识的异质分布，其对个人知识的潜在限制（截断-幂律）。面对其他可能的系统退化情况的鲁棒性分析表明，民族植物系统对药剂和药用植物的损失表现出很高的抵抗力，但在退化阈值之后又表现出非线性反应，此后其突然崩溃。系统结构是预期的。为了应对生物圈保护区的这些威胁，