This study was carried out in a semideciduous seasonal forest fragment with a long history of manmade disturbance, located in urban Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. The aim was to compare the composition and structure of the regeneration layer with that of the adult canopy layer in order to obtain information on environmental functioning and the dynamics of this plant formation. In 30 plots of 10×10 m, plants equal to or taller than one meter were surveyed, recording height and stem diameter at soil level. The presence of large trees of secondary species in the canopy layer, without corresponding abundance in the regeneration layer, suggests that disturbance affects the understory directly. The canopy of the seasonal forest at Parque do Sabiá is composed of trees probably decades old; natural or manmade gap formation stimulates the establishment of pioneer species. In general, the important species of the regeneration layer suggest that the floristic composition of the community is changing in a process of succession characterized by the presence of many young individuals belonging to species of the early successional stages.
natural regeneration; semideciduous seasonal forest; manmade disturbance; phytosociology
