The analysis of canopy dynamics is important to evaluate the effects of urbanization on forest fragments, once canopies alterations can result in biotic and abiotic modifications in inferior strata. For analysis of canopy dynamics, litterfall and leaf area index (LAI), obtained by three different methods, were evaluated for two years in a fragment of a semideciduous forest at the urban perimeter of Belo Horizonte, MG. The annual mean litterfall was approximately 6.47 t.ha-1.year-1, with great seasonal variation. The average values of LAI obtained from hemispherical photographs (LAI-photo), and using LAI-2000 (LI-COR) (LAI-LAI2000), were respectively, 2.3 and 4.9 at the end of the wet season, and 0.78 and 1.3 at the dry season. These values were higher than the values of LAI obtained from specific leaf area of the leaf litter (LAI-litter). The methodologies using hemispherical images (LAI-photo and LAI-LAI2000) showed, in spite of distinct values, the canopy dynamics in a similar way. LAI-litter showed the dynamics in inverse way, with good negative linear relationship among the LAI values obtained through hemispherical images and the LAI values obtained through leaf litter. These results suggested that all of these methods can be used to register the canopy dynamics.
Litterfall; semideciduous forest; leaf area index (LAI)
