In tropical montane forests, compositional and structural changes are commonly driven by broad-scale altitudinal variation. Here, given the lack of knowledge on small-scale vegetation changes and temporal dynamics, we address the effects of small-scale variations in soil and altitude on tree community structure, temporal dynamics and phylogenetic diversity in a semi-deciduous tropical forest of the Atlantic Forest Domain, southeastern Brazil. In 2010 and 2015 we sampled thirty plots of 400 m², set up along an altitudinal gradient between 1000 and 1500 m a.s.l.. In each plot, we collected soil samples for chemical and textural analyses. We fitted linear models to test the effects of altitude and soil on community dynamics and phylogenetic parameters. Altitude and soil explained the spatial variation in number of individuals and phylogenetic diversity metrics. From lower to higher altitudes, we found decreasing fertility, increasing tree density and decreasing phylogenetic diversity. Altitude significantly influenced the increases in total biomass (from 240.9 to 255.4 t ha⁻¹) and individual biomass (from 0.15 to 0.17 t) recorded in the interval. And while community temporal dynamics had rates of 1.96% for mortality, 1.02% for recruitment, 1.61% for biomass loss and 2.81% for biomass gain, none of them were explained by altitude or soil. Temporal species substitution averaged 0.1 in the interval. Altogether, these results suggest that the small-scale variations in altitude and soil likely determine the conditions and resources that drive community assembly and structure, which are expressed by spatial variations along the altitudinal gradient. At the same time, temporal patterns were not influenced by altitude-related environmental variation, resulting in a similar dynamic behaviour across the gradient, suggesting that broad-scale factors may play a more important role than local ones.

在热带山地森林中，组成和结构的变化通常是由大范围的海拔变化驱动的。在这里，鉴于缺乏关于小尺度植被变化和时间动态的知识，我们解决了土壤和海拔的小尺度变化对大西洋半落叶热带森林中树木群落结构、时间动态和系统发育多样性的影响森林域，巴西东南部。在 2010 年和 2015 年，我们对 30 个 400 m ^{2 的}地块进行了采样, 沿海拔 1000 到 1500 m asl 之间的梯度设置。在每个地块中，我们收集了土壤样品进行化学和质地分析。我们拟合线性模型来测试海拔和土壤对群落动态和系统发育参数的影响。海拔和土壤解释了个体数量和系统发育多样性指标的空间变化。从低海拔到高海拔，我们发现生育力下降，树木密度增加，系统发育多样性下降。海拔高度显着影响了总生物量的增加（从 240.9 到 255.4 t ha ^-1) 和个体生物量（从 0.15 到 0.17 t）记录在间隔中。虽然群落时间动态的死亡率为 1.96%，补充率为 1.02%，生物量损失为 1.61%，生物量增加为 2.81%，但它们都不能用海拔或土壤来解释。时间间隔内的物种替代平均为 0.1。总之，这些结果表明，海拔和土壤的小尺度变化可能决定了驱动群落组装和结构的条件和资源，这些条件和资源由沿海拔梯度的空间变化表示。同时，时间模式不受与海拔高度相关的环境变化的影响，导致跨越梯度的类似动态行为，表明大尺度因素可能比局部因素发挥更重要的作用。