Management guidelines in disturbance-Prone populations: The importance of the intervention time

The use of conservation and management practices to buffer possible damages after disturbance events is growing to become popular worldwide. However, little is known about their efficacy in real-life situations. To fill this gap, we will derive management guidelines in disturbance-prone populations regarding the external introduction of individuals and the ecological restoration. We will also discuss the efficacy of these practices in the population dynamics of three species (a fast life-cycle mayfly, a slow life-cycle dragonfly and an ostracod) when their habitat suffers from periodic controlled flooding. One of the main messages of this paper is that the interplay between the inherited parameters of the population and disturbance events is a source of rich and unexpected behaviours. More importantly, intervention time plays a critical role in the performance of some management strategies.