LAUSR

The process of urbanization is the main transformational element of urban environments. Along with the implementation of structures that make up the urban environment (streets, avenues, buildings, etc.), natural stands of trees are indiscriminately removed in practically all Brazilian cities, promoting the loss of biodiversity and degrading the quality of life of the people living in these cities. The objective of this work was to evaluate the changes in vegetation and species diversity during the urbanization process of the city of Palmas, TO state. The vegetation inventory occurred in green areas and in 50% of the streets of 33 urban residential blocks, with data collected from all individual trees in each of these sites. A total of 16,294 trees were sampled in the urbanized residential blocks of Palmas, which came from 200 species and 47 botanical families. In general, the native species of the Cerrado biome were the most frequent ones, comprising 51.28% of the individuals. The species diversity was high ( H '= 4.046) and it was statistically higher (t = 12.364, p <0.001) in green spaces (H' = 3.892) than in the streets ( H '= 3.572). Compared to other urban centers, Palmas stands out in terms of the diversity of native tree species of Cerrado, with its diversity directly relating to the presence of empty green space in each residential block.  These open spaces should be conserved and increased to promote a greater number of species that will maintain the biodiversity and improve the quality of life and well-being of the city inhabitants.