Is the Assisted Enrichment efficient to the recovery of the Tropical Semi-deciduous Forests?

Due to their high natural fertility, Tropical Semi-deciduous Forests have been significantly impacted in recent decades, becoming fragile and requiring interventions for their restructuring. Among the methodologies, assisted enrichment has stood out for the recovery of already forested environments, with the introduction of species that promote the successional development of these environments. In this context, we evaluated the initial establishment of different species using direct seeding and seedling planting techniques as enhancers for Subdeciduous Tropical Forests. We used Astronium urundeuva , Eugenia uniflora , and Hymenaea courbaril as enriching species. The characterization of the influence of environmental characteristics was based on biotic and abiotic data from the sampled areas. In the study, we observed greater initial establishment of individuals under seedling planting, with higher survival compared to direct seeding. Even with low emergence, direct seeding showed higher relative growth compared to seedling planting. A. urundeuva and E. uniflora showed higher estimated survival in seedling planting and direct seeding, respectively, while H. courbaril showed similar establishment in both techniques. No significant influence of environmental parameters on the establishment of individuals was observed. Despite the low emergence of individuals, we do not dismiss direct seeding as an enhancer, considering its cost-benefit ratio.