Predicao da distribuicao diamétrica da floresta atlántica pelo emprego da matriz de transicao

The main objective of this research was to evaluate the use of a methodology based on the transition matrices to estimate short and long-term projections of diameter distribuition of the uneven-aged natural stands, under various harvesting regimes or without indisturbance, based on data issued from "Reserva Florestal de Linhares-RFL", belonging to the "Cia. Vale do Rio Doce-CVRD" located in Linhares, State of Espirito Santo - Brazil. The uneven-aged forest growth was represented by a matrix model operating on a vector that describe the diameter distribution before application of the treatments, in 1980. The estimation of the transition probabilities was done by simple proportions and the ingrowth equation was estimated by ordinary least squares. Harvest was represented in the model by a diagonal matrix, which correspondes to the removal of a fixed proportion of the trees from each diameter class. The results show that ingrowth and the diameter distribution.