Structure and floristic diversity of remnant semideciduous forest under varying levels of disturbance

The perturbation of Neotropical forests generates large disturbances in biological communities. The species that suffer least from the resulting habitat fragmentation are the pioneers, because they possess greater ability to inhabit disturbed environments. Therefore, it is expected that species diversity will be greater in areas subjected to intermediate disturbance, such as the opening of gaps, because a large number of pioneer species will develop and coexist with species of more advanced successional stages. This study aimed to compare two forest remnants that differed in size and disturban...