The relationship between the soil characteristics and a forest gradient, formed by gallery forest, semideciduous forest and "cerradão", in the Panga Ecological Station, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil, was analysed. A total of 211 bulk soil samples were collected, from a depth of 0 - 20 cm, and analysed for their physical (granulometric) and chemical (macronutrients and fertility parameters) characteristics. The phytophysiognomies differed statisticaly from each other for the variables calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, aluminium, saturation of aluminium, saturation of bases and organic matter, while other edaphic attributes were similar in pairs of phytophysiognomies. Some plant species were distributed in the forest gradient following the variation of soil physical-chemical composition, while others are apparently indifferent to the soil gradient. There is evidence that the soil represents an important role in the structuring of the vegetation along the studied forest gradient.
Soil; forest gradient; soil-vegetation relationship
