Biocultural, Productive, and Ecocentric Restoration in La Mintzita Spring-fed Wetland, Michoacán, México

ABSTRACT

The increasing loss of wetlands at the global scale demands immediate response by improving management practices and ecological restoration. When people degrade wetlands, environmental restoration must overcome biotic and economic barriers that can be considerable. We assessed the floristic composition of a wetland subjected to anthropic disturbances and expansion of invasive species, then compared our results with historical data from 2005 to 2015. The result revealed that changes in floristic composition and dominant native and invasive dominant species occurred during this 16-year period. In the dry season, we found significant differences in species richness between the years 2005 and 2021, with a significant reduction in species richness in the latter year. This loss of species richness represents an unfavorable change in the floristic composition trajectory, which we explain as an effect of sustained anthropic disturbance. Floristic data from the rainy season was not conclusive. Typha domingensis, and the invasives Phragmites australis and Festuca arundinacea have been favored by disturbances and increased their cover at the expense of other wetland species, reducing the wetland’s floristic diversity. Our objective was to redirect the floristic composition trajectory in the La Mintzita wetland by proposing management strategies for controlling the above-mentioned species based on three ecological restoration strategies: biocultural (targeting simultaneously the loss of biodiversity and of traditional use of Typha), productive (to control expansion of P. australis which has no traditional use in the region, we propose a new use), and ecocentric (to control F. arundinacea and recover native species cover).