Valéria de Fatima Silva
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Laércio Antônio Gonçalves Jacovine
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Angeline Martini
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Carlos Moreira Miquelino Eleto Torres
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Isabella Salgado Faustino
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Abstract
Trees in the urban environment provide several ecosystem benefits to the population, such as decreasing temperature, increasing humidity, shading, improving air quality, as well as physical and mental well-being. These can be enhanced through the knowledge of the growth of the trees in function of the characteristics of the place where they are inserted. Thus, the objective was to estimate the growth in diameter, height and volume of forest species in the urban environment, in Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. For this, woody individuals and palm trees present in the urban afforestation of the headquarters campus of the Federal University of Viçosa were selected based on age and had their diameter, breast height and height measured. Allometric equations specific to the study site were used to estimate their volume, and through the relationship with age, the average annual increment was obtained. Woody individuals showed a growth rate in volume of 0,0279 ± 0,0274 m³ year-1 and palm trees, 0,0139 ± 0,0119 m³ year-1. The differences in the average annual increase in volume found between woody individuals and palm trees may be due to morphological differences that affect the secondary growth of individuals. The growth rate of trees in the urban environment is higher when compared to those in forest fragments and experimental plantings. The decrease in growth rates with increasing age was expected due to the relationship between them being of the non-linear type, following a sigmoidal model.