Resistance without trade-offs: wood density drives survival while potential size constrains early growth in tropical forest restoration

High seedling mortality is a key bottleneck in tropical forest restoration, but the mechanisms governing the survival–growth trade-off remain unclear. We evaluated seedling performance in a high-diversity restoration planting in Goytacazes National Forest (Tableland Atlantic Forest), monitoring 771 individuals from 54 native species over three years (2012–2015). Using Stratified Cox Proportional Hazards models for survival and Linear Mixed Models for relative growth rates (RGR), we also quantifi