Translator Ferri (1918 – 1985) pioneered field work in Plant Ecology in Brazil. His PhD thesis was one of the first scientific works of an experimental nature in the study of ecology of the vegetation of the cerrados.

Warming spent several years (1863–1866) in the region of Lagoa Santa in the state of Minas Gerais, assisting the paleontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund, considered the father of the paleontology of Brazil.
During this time, he undertook detailed observations of the local flora, particularly the cerrado vegetation—Brazil’s savanna biome. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Warming did not limit himself to cataloguing species. Instead, he explored how plants interacted with their environment: how they survived drought, coped with fire, and responded to poor soils. His focus on the functional aspects of vegetation-structure, life-form, and adaptation was deeply innovative and helped lay the groundwork for what would later become the discipline of ecology.