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

• Published in: Journal of theoretical biology 2020-02, Vol.486, p.110075-110075, Article 110075
• Main Authors: Pérez, Pablo, Ruiz-Herrera, Alfonso, San Luis, Ana María
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Constant introduction of individuals; Disturbance ecology; Ecological restoration; Non-monotone responses
• ISSN: 0022-5193; 1095-8541
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.110075

•There exists a broad range of management strategies to mitigate the possible damages after a natural catastrophe. However, their efficacy in real situations is not well understood.•We derive management guidelines in disturbance-prone populations regarding the external introduction of individuals and the ecological restoration.•The intervention time plays a critical role in the efficacy of most management strategies.•The presence of disturbance events produces many non-monotone and unexpected behaviours in the populations.•We illustrate our results with real data from three different species, mayfly, dragonfly and ostracod. 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.