Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering A 6 (2017) 68-84 doi:10.17265/2162-5298/2017.02.003 A Forest Growth Dynamic Indicator Vinicius Leal 1 , Thomaz Costa 2 and Andreia Silva 3 1. Santo Agostinho Colleges, Sete Lagoas 35700-068, Brazil 2. Core of Water, Soil and Environmental Sustainability (NSAM), Embrapa Maize and Sorghum, Sete Lagoas 35701-970, Brazil 3. Herbarium of PAMG, EPAMIG, Belo Horizonte 31170-495, Brazil Abstract: The dynamics of forest growth are related to the succession stage, the quality of the environment and the degree of anthropism. The growth of a forest is given by the activity of live trees, mortality, and trees that are cut or recruited during the growing period. A way of representing the growth dynamics of a forest is by the Transition Matrix, with the divisibility of the population in states, with probabilities of movement from one state to another, over time. Forest dynamics studies are carried out by means of a continuous forest inventory, allowing the calculation of gains and losses in basal area, mortality rates and ingrowth. In this study, the measurements were performed with a 5-year interval, on 27 plots distributed in 12 sites. The methodology correlated parameters of the forest dynamics with canopy, soil, relief and hydrographic parameters. An indicator of forest growth dynamics was proposed and it was tested. It was confirmed that the density factor interferes in growth dynamics of the forest. Key words: Transition matrix, index, environmental parameters. 1. Introduction Ecological succession is the process in which vegetation passes to achieve a relative stability in physiological, structural and floristics characteristics [1]. During this process, changes occur in forest communities, called forest dynamics [2]. The species have different growth rates, life cycles, and pioneer species that begin the process, have higher rates of growth and short life cycles [3, 4]. In addition to the genetic feature, species growth is conditioned to the environment, characterized by geographic location, water supply, relief, soil quality (fertility, organic matter, soil depth, among others) [5], justifying that vegetation in tropical forest areas is complex due to the large number of species and the multiple interactions between plants and environment [6]. There is a consensus in the literature that the successional process is complex and may involve a considerable number of biotic and abiotic variables, such as diversity of flora and fauna species, climatic, Corresponding author: Thomaz Costa, Ph.D., main research field: remote sensing of vegetation. edaphic and anthropic factors [7]. In Brazil, the classification of successional stages in areas of Atlantic Forest is defined by resolutions of the CONAMA (National Environment Council), edited for each State of the Federation (Brasil, 1990, 1993a, 1993b, 2007) apud [7]. However, their applications are not practical and become subjective and imprecise, due to the quantity and subjectivity of parameters involved and the environmental and anthropic variations. In this work, authors choose the distribution of size classes and proportion of successional groups, not to define the succession stages, but to obtain a relative comparison between sites. The growth of a forest is given by the activity of live trees, mortality [8], and trees that are cut or recruited during the growing period [9]. The gaps are one of the main factors for the natural succession dynamics of tropical forests, due to the natural fall or death of trees [10]. Understanding of the growth of natural forests is not based on the age, but on the dynamics of growth [11]. One way of representing the dimensions of a forest is by diameter classes, because the age is difficult to obtain [12], and because the tree does not express D DAVID PUBLISHING