GROWTH IN VOLUME OF Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze IN SERRA DO SUDESTE IN THE STATE OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL, BRAZIL

This research aims at analyzing the growth in volume of Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze in the region of Serra do Sudeste (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) and also proposing a growth equation in volume. Data were obtained by trunk analysis, considering, firstly, transverse sections of trees at 0.10 and 1.30 m heigths; after-words, the measurement taken into accoumt was 2.0 in 2.0 m height. Such trees were cut in natural settlements, having resulted the volume per age. The wirk demonstrated that species in this area has significant increments, reaching, after 60 years, a volume eithout bark of 0.6866 m3, with an annual average increament in volume without bark of of 0.01585 m3/year.Os objetivos desta pesquisa foram analisar o crescimento em volume de Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze na regi\ue3o da Serra do Sudeste e ajustar uma equa\ue7\ue3o de crescimento em volume. Os dados foram obtidos por an\ue1lise de tronco, de se\ue7\uf5es transversais nas alturas de 0,10 m, 1,30 m e, ap\uf3s, de 2 em 2m, de \ue1rvores abatidas de povoamentos naturais, tendo o volume resultado por idade. O trabalho demonstrou que a esp\ue9cie nessa regi\ue3o tem incrementos significativos, atingindo, aos 60 anos, o volume sem casca m\ue9dio igual a 0,6866 m3, com um incremento m\ue9dio anual em volume sem casca de 0,01585 m3/ano