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Ecosystems are Made of Semiosic Bonds:

Consortia, Umwelten, Biophony and Ecological
Codes

Article in Biosemiotics · December 2010

DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9081-1

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Biosemiotics (2010) 3:347–357
DOI 10.1007/s12304-010-9081-1
O R I G I N A L PA P E R

Ecosystems are Made of Semiosic Bonds: Consortia,

Umwelten, Biophony and Ecological Codes

Kalevi Kull

Received: 8 March 2010 / Accepted: 21 March 2010 /

Published online: 23 April 2010
# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Abstract The paper focuses on the semiotic principles of the organisation of

ecosystems, attempting to find concepts that point to relations and not to elements.
(1) Consortium (the term introduced by Johannes Reinke around 1873) can be
defined as a group of organisms connected via (sign) relations, or groups of
interspecific semiosic links in biocoenosis. The consortial relations include trophic
and topic relations, both implying a recognition (identification) of the object by an
organism involved (these, i.e., are sign relations). These relations are ecologically
inheritable. (2) Umwelt (the term introduced by Jakob von Uexküll around 1909)
can be defined as a set of relations an organism has in an ecosystem (as in a
semiosphere). The formation of an umwelt is dependent on the modelling system of
the organism. (3) Biophony (the term introduced by Bernie Krause around 2000)
denotes the coordination of inter- and intra-species relations in a soundscape of a
biological community. This can be seen as a special case of Komposition as defined
by Jakob and Thure von Uexküll. (4) Ecological code (as introduced, e.g. by
Alexander Levich around 1977) can be defined as the set of (sign) relations (regular
irreducible correspondences) characteristic to an entire ecosystem. We also mention
the concepts of ecomones and coactones (introduced by Marcel Florkin in 1965) as
the substances which are responsible for mediation of ecological inter-individual
relations. All the relations as sign-relations evidently imply both a static or
structuralist description (in terms of codes), and a processual description (in terms
of semiosis carried on by interpretation). We conclude that all the above mentioned
concepts can be viewed as conceptually connected and are suitable for semiotic
description of biological communities.

Keywords Ecosystem structure . Ecological codes . Ecological inheritance .

Ecomones . Sign relations . Consortium . Umwelt

K. Kull (*)
Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, Tiigi 78, 50410 Tartu, Estonia
e-mail: [email protected]
348 K. Kull

Introduction

What preserves the structure of ecological communities? What makes particular

species eat certain species, certain insect species pollinate certain plant species,
certain species live in or on the bodies of particular host species, etc.?
The problem I attempt to describe here concerns the major mechanisms that
form—design and develop—the biocoenoses, and thus ecosystems. The hypothesis
that will be discussed states that this mechanism is communication, or more precisely—
semiosis. In this case an ecosystem should be seen not as consisting of populations of
separate species, as for instance in the individualistic approaches that follow the
tradition of Henry Gleason. Neither can it be described as a holistic and entirely
organismic entity regulated by element cycles, as it has been well described by the
tradition of Frederic Clements and the Odum brothers.1 The semiotic approach,
instead, would focus on relations—which are neither individual nor total, but partial.
Organisms are not separate; they are linked. They are linked by their own
relations—sign relations. These relations themselves should be our objects if we
want to understand the life process of living communities, life as it happens in
ecosystems. From a semiotic point of view, ecological communities are not sets of
organisms (or species) as elements; instead, a community is a composition of
relations between the organisms or species.2
At least those organisms that can actively move, can also find what they may
recognise.3 Therefore, they can form communities on the basis of sign relations.
Obviously, each species prefers (has a habit to prefer) certain other species with its
features, which it recognises and remembers. The existence of these species in an
ecosystem renders it possible to inherit these relations, on the basis of memory, which
directs their recognition and action capacity. This means that there is ecological inheritance.
Ecological relationships can be described using different languages of description. In
case of physical descriptions, we could pay attention to the dynamic processes of
chemical exchange between individuals. In case of semiotic descriptions, we would
focus on the relations that the organisms (individually or group-wise) retain.4 This paper
focuses on the latter, i.e. on the semiotic principles of the organisation of ecosystems.
Life processes are capable of establishing regular bonds between things of almost
any nature. The bonds of life are the relations that living systems first make
coincidentally, and may then re-establish and transmit (epigenetically, genetically,
socially, culturally) via semiosis.5 These relations—if regular—can be described as
1
This opposition, as initiated by the seminal works of Gleason (1926) and Clements (1928), has been
central in vegetation science and in the study of ecological balance for almost a century (see Kull and
Zobel 1994).
2
It should be added that these relations of mutual recognition between organisms can themselves be
responsible for the categorization of organisms into the species-like categories.
3
Active movement is possible for many unicellular organisms; thus, it is a characteristic of both
vegetative and animal levels. Different from the Aristotelian tradition, that points to movement when
distinguishing the vegetative and animal, we would point to the crucial difference in the processes of
interpretation and learning (see Kull 2009b)—animal learning is parallel, making new associations
(indexes), whereas vegetative learning is sequential (exclusively iconic).
4
These two approaches were compared as phi-scientific (physical) and sigma-scientific (semiotic)
descriptions in Kull (2009a).
5
Relations are both functions and signs (sign processes). Everything that life does can thus be described
on the basis of relational processes.
Ecosystems Are Made of Semiosic Bonds 349

codes, or habits, or rules (as different from physical laws). There are several
concepts in biology that have been used to describe these sets of regular semiosic
relations.
The semiotic view, or in other words, the understanding of the relational nature of
living systems, would require the usage of concepts and models that point to the
relations themselves—the concepts that characterise the primacy of relations in
comparison to the elements.6 The aim of the current paper is to gather and review
some of the relational concepts that are in use in ecology, and to demonstrate their
relevance in a semiotic approach.

Semiosic Bonds

In contrast with the relationships based on physico-chemical affinity, there are others
that require work in order to be maintained and repeatedly formed. The work that
organisms perform is utilized inter alia in keeping the relations, i.e. the semiosic
relations (sign relations), persistent.
Semiosis, or interpretation sensu lato, is a process that is permanently changing,
and in fact unique at every instant. But just as much as change, habit-making is its
fundamental feature, since semiosis cannot make a step without memory being
involved. Habits and codes consist of repeated relations.
Particular instances (occurrences) of semiosis, such as functional cycles, can be
seen as relations in process, and each of these makes a connection—as a relation
always does.7 These semiosic connections can be interpreted as ecological bonds.
The development of semiosic bonds is dependent on the distinctions the
organisms can make. Detailed distinctions imply narrow recognition window and
small differences that may count for an organism when establishing a particular
bond. Exact distinctions mean narrow recognition window, the approximate
distinction a wide recognition window. A further consequence: the narrower the
recognition window, the higher the diversity.

Consortium

Consortium is a term introduced by Johannes Reinke8 in 1872 (Reinke 1872a)9 to

denote the mutual relation between the organisms which turns them into a unity.
Reinke used this term particularly in the cases when the body of an organism
consists of two species (Reinke 1872a, 1872b, 1873b, 1901: 484). Unlike August

6
Cf. Bains 2006.
7
In addition to Uexküll’s Funktionskreis, I refer here to the concept of Gestaltkreis of Victor von
Weizsäcker, as referred to in connection with biosemiotics by Rothschild (1994). See also Harries-Jones
2002; Berthos and Christen 2009; Chang 2009; Fagot-Largeault 2009.
8
Reinke (1872a) mentions that he had heard the term first in a conversation with August Grisebach, who
used it for the description of the relations between the algae and fungi in lichens.
9
Another work—Reinke 1873a—which is sometimes referred to in the literature as the source for the
term ‘consortium’, does not actually include this term in the text (Sööt 2009).
350 K. Kull

Grisebach, who described the relations of algae and fungi in lichens as parasitic,
Reinke emphasised the stability of the relation and a dual control without
domination, thus excluding unilateral benefit (see Frank 1877; Hejný 1972;
Ainsworth 1976; Sapp et al. 2002).10 In the first decades of its usage, the concept
was mainly applied in lichenology (Strasburger et al. 1912: 417); but e.g. Church
(1920) had a broader sense in mind.11
Since the 1950s, the concept of consortium has come into use in general
biocoenology, first by way of Beklemishev (1951) and Ramensky (1952), and later
Rabotnov (1972; 1973) and Masing (1976, 1981). The concept itself has become
considerably richer. The component species of the consortium is termed a consort
(Masing 1981), or a consorting organism or unit (Gaino et al. 2004). The species in
relation to which the consortium is described is called edificator (by Beklemishev
1951) or determinant (by Masing 1981) or inconsort (Belomesyatseva 2002).
Masing (1981) gave classifications of consortia based on the systemic level of its
major components (individual, clonal, populational, regional, species, synusial), and
their functional relationships (mero-consortia, holo-consortia, sapro-consortia). In
addition to the local consortia, according to Rabotnov (1972), vicarious consortia
occur as well, in the case of introduction of alien species. Consorts can be either
trophoconsorts or topoconsorts (Masing 1981). Consorts can belong to the first, or
second, or higher concentre of a particular determinant.
Besides its usage in some biocoenological studies (e.g. Belomesyatseva 2002;
Gaino et al. 2004; Matafonov et al. 2005; Gómez 2007; Porras-Alfaro et al. 2008),
the concept of consortium has a slightly more specific contemporary usage in soil
microbiology, where it marks the groups of functionally related species. Popa (2004:
210) defines it this way: “consortium: in microbiology, an association of micro-
organisms from different species living in metabolic interdependence”. In this case, a
consortium can be a group of microorganisms that work together in fulfilling a
certain biochemical transformation of the substrate (Caron 2000; Brenner et al.
2007). According to another description, a consortium is a “spatial grouping of
bacterial cells within a biofilm in which different species are physiologically
coordinated with each other, often to produce phenomenally efficient chemical
transformations” (Elvers and Lappin-Scott 2004: 161). In our view, these
occurrences can be seen as special cases of the same concept.
The traditional set of concepts used to characterise interspecific relationships
include symbiosis or mutualism (+,+), amensalism (−,0), commensalism (+,0), prey-
predator and parasitism (+,−), competition (−,−) and neutralism (0,0). These
relationships, when defined for pairs, are often characterised on the basis of the
measurable effects on organisms (or, on the population growth rate). This means that
the common distinction between these relationships is not based on the identification
of the mechanism of the relationship, but just on the effect which one species has

10
Another early use of the term ‘consortium’ in a similar sense belongs to Andrei Famintsyn. See, e.g.,
Ryan (2002: 52).
11
Albert Bernhard Frank (1877) introduced the term homobium to denote the system in which the partner
organisms form a new organism (and lose their separate independence), thus leaving the term consortium
for a broader meaning (see also Höxtermann and Mollenhauer 2007).
Ecosystems Are Made of Semiosic Bonds 351

upon the other, either increasing (+), decreasing (−), or not causing a change (0) in
the population of other species. Since these influences can be entirely indirect or
even not presuppose any communication between the organisms, we cannot use
these concepts automatically for a semiotic approach. However, in some cases these
relationships can be based on the perceptual recognition between the organisms, i.e.
on true sign relations. The criterion for the acceptance of a particular relationship as
semiotic could thus be the existence of consortial relations.12
The consortial system can be characterised by Hoffmeyer’s words: “The situation,
in other words, has a matrix-like structure with multiple interdependent relationships
binding populations of many different species into a shared interpretive universe or
motif” (Hoffmeyer 2008: 195).
Consortium can therefore be defined as a group of organisms connected via (sign)
relations. Accordingly, consortia are the true elementary components of ecosys-
tems,13 because the relations consortia involve are decisive in turning a set of
populations that occur in the same territory into a system that is not just a set but
maintains coherence. The relations involved in a consortium are both trophic and
topic—in any case, these relations imply recognition (identification) of an object by
an organism involved (which means these are sign relations). Accordingly, consortia
are groups of semiosic links in biocoenosis, related to a particular species or
function.14 These links (relations) are ecologically inheritable.

Ecological Inheritance

Consortia (as complexes of sign relations) are ecologically inheritable—in order to

become inherited (conveyed from one generation to the next), a relation requires all
of its relata; one is not enough.
Inheritance is the process that keeps relations alive; it both regenerates and
generates relations. Relations are local rules, based on recognition-and-action circles.
What keeps the relations alive is, of course, these recognition-action circles
themselves, or more precisely—semiosis, which is, in other words, interpretation.
This means that inheritance is itself an interpretation-type process—an interpretation
that has turned into a habit, in a Peircean sense. This is the case for any sort of
inheritance, including genetic and ecological.
Any living system can be seen as a process on inheritable relations (or the process
of inheriting relations per se). This process reshapes the relationships in many
ways—spatially, temporally, chemically. It makes things move differently—
intentionally, and therefore unpredictably from the point of view of physics. This
is because the relations themselves are the rules that are established by life.
What is inherited are the codes, or relations. Codes and relations are processes
that work as restricted correspondences. Since ecological codes can be defined as

12
See also Kull 1999.
13
E.g. according to Matafonov et al. (2005: 490), a consortium can be seen as an “elementary biocenosis
that includes interacting populations of the edificator and consort species”.
14
Matafonov et al. (2005) find it possible to speak about the key consortia as the ones that may be of
particular importance in terms of the stability of a biocoenosis.
352 K. Kull

(relatively stable) consortial relations, ecological inheritance primarily passes

consortial relations.
The idea that genetic inheritance is only one inheritance type among several that
characterise living systems has been repeatedly described by Eva Jablonka. She has
written (Jablonka 2001: 100):

[The] replicator-centered, gene-derived view of heredity is, however, not only

severely limited, but also severely misleading. There are multiple inheritance
systems, with several modes of transmission for each system, that have
different properties and interact with each other. They include the genetic
inheritance system, cellular or epigenetic inheritance systems, the systems
underlying the transmission of behaviour patterns in animal societies through
social learning, and the communication system employing symbolical
languages. These systems all carry information, which I shall define here as
the transmissible organization of an actual or potential state of a system. [...]
Inheritance systems with replicator-like properties are very unusual, and
certainly do not represent or sum up the many ways in which heritable
variations are transmitted across generations. I use ‘transmission’ in a general
way, to denote all the processes leading to the regeneration of the same type of
organization-states across generations. This includes the direct transfer of
resources, as well as the activities that lead to the reconstruction of ancestral
phenotypes.
The term ‘ecological inheritance’ became more widely used in biology in
connection with the concept of niche construction and its consequences for the
understanding of evolution. Laland et al. (2001: 119) give the following definition:
“We define as ecological inheritance any case in which an organism experiences a
modified functional relationship between itself and its environment as a consequence
of the niche-constructive activities of either its genetic or ecological ancestors”. It is
important that ecological inheritance encompasses not only modification of the
ancestral environments that are bequeathed onto the next generation. It primarily
concerns the relation, as should be the case in any type of inheritance.
The mechanisms that establish a new, or modify an existing relation, can in
principle be one and the same for interspecific (ecological) and intraspecific
inheritance. One such mechanism may be imprinting, as it has been fittingly described
by Hess (1973: 351):

Not long ago (Hess 1962) we defined imprinting as ‘the primary formation of
social bonds in infant animals.’ Now, however, we no longer regard imprinting
as simply primary socialization. Rather, we see imprinting as a particular type
of learning process—that is, a tool (in the same sense as eating or breathing are
tools), which may be used by a species for the formation of a filial-maternal
bond, pair formation, environment attachment, food preferences, and perhaps
other cases involving some sort of object-response relationship. It is,
furthermore, a genetically programmed learning, with some species-specific
constraints upon the kind of object that may be learned and upon the time of
learning. In other words imprinting is a genotype-dependent ontogenetic
process.
Ecosystems Are Made of Semiosic Bonds 353

Umwelt

Umwelt is a concept which was introduced by Jakob von Uexküll around 1909;
though it took more than 10 years before he defined it properly. Certain differences
(and developments) can be noticed also in the definition of this term among the
followers of Uexküll. A quite usual definition says that umwelt is the personal world
of an organism, or a self-centred world, “the world as known or modelled” (Cobley
2010: 348). This definition is correct by itself, but it does not emphasise the relational
aspect enough. Therefore we would prefer here a different wording, and we define
umwelt as a set of relations an organism has in an ecosystem (as in a semiosphere).
The formation of an umwelt is dependent on the Innenwelt as the primary modelling
system of the organism. This definition corresponds to the view of Jakob von Uexküll
as expressed in his Bedeutungslehre (Uexküll 1940 [1982: 64, 69]):
Meaning in nature’s score serves as a connecting link, or rather as a bridge, and
takes the place of harmony in a musical score; it joins two of nature’s factors.
[...] Each meaning-carrier was always confronted with a meaning-receiver, even
in [...] earlier umwelten. Meaning ruled them all. Meaning tied changing organs
to a changing medium. Meaning connected food and the destroyer of food,
enemy and prey, and above all, male and female in astonishing variations.
Thus, if umwelt is made of relations, of semiosic bonds, we can conclude that
organisms are derivates of (sign) relations, not vice versa. Umwelt (as relational, i.e.
a meaningful world) exists prior to its representations, since life can often do without
representations. Conversely, of course, there cannot be an umwelt without life. Life
is centred on organisms, in their agency; therefore, umwelten are also individual and
individualised.

Biophony

Biophony is a concept that was introduced by Bernie Krause around 2000 to describe
both inter- and intra-species relations in the soundscape of a biological community.
“Animal symphony,” as he writes, “the unique manner in which creatures vocalize in
a symbiotic relationship to one another in any given healthy habitat, is what I call
biophony” (Krause 2002: 24). Here is a longer description:15
Through my field work, I discovered that in undisturbed natural environments,
creatures vocalize in relationship to one another very much like instruments in
an orchestra. On land, in particular, this delicate acoustic fabric is almost as
well-defined as the notes on a page of music when examined graphically in the
form of what we sometimes call voice prints. For instance, in healthy habitats,
certain insects occupy one sonic zone of the creature bandwidth, while birds,
mammals, and amphibians occupy others not yet taken and where there is no
competition. This system has evolved in a manner so that each voice can be

15
From a speech B. Krause made to the San Francisco World Affairs Council, titled “Loss of national
soundscape: Global implication of its effect on humans and other creatures”, on January 31, 2001.
354 K. Kull

heard distinctly and each creature can thrive as much through its iteration as
any other aspect of its being. The same type of event also generally occurs
within marine environments. This biophony, or creature choir, serves as a vital
gauge of a habitat’s health. But it also conveys data about its age, its level of
stress, and can provide us with an abundance of other valuable new
information such as why and how creatures in both the human and non-
human worlds have learned to dance and sing.
This can be seen as a special case of Komposition as defined by Jakob and Thure
von Uexküll (Uexküll 1980).

Ecological Code

Ecological codes (as introduced, e.g. by Alexander Levich around 1977, see Levich
1983) can be defined as the sets of (sign) relations (regular irreducible
correspondences) characteristic of an entire ecosystem, including the interspecies
relations in particular. It should be obvious that if we can identify consortia that
maintain themselves throughout the changes of generations, i.e. which are
ecologically inheritable, then it has to be possible to describe the correspondences
within this set of consortial relations—correspondences that fulfil all the require-
ments of a code. In other words, the existence of consortia (as defined above)
logically implies the existence of ecological codes.
A general characteristic of codes is the existence of certain mediators that may not
have any other role than ensuring the identity of the code, which is often described
as its informational function. In case of ecological codes, such a role can be played
by what Marcel Florkin has called ecomones.
According to Florkin (1965),16 “in an ecosystem, besides the contribution of the
trophic chains in supplying molecules endowed with nutritive functions and ensuring
the flux of matter and of energy one may describe non trophic molecules active in
insuring a flux of information as well as the constitution and maintenance of the
community (ecomones)”. Florkin has defined ecomones as “The molecular factors,
specific or non-specific, exercising an action on the constitution and the persistence
of a biotical community”.17 Among the ecomones, Florkin identifies coactones:
“Some ecomones are recognized as being specifically active in the process of the
coaction of organisms upon each other. Such specific substances or coactones are
determinant in the relationship between the coactor (active and directing organism)
and the coactee (passive and receiving organism)”.

Conclusion

From a biological point of view, in order to understand what keeps the interspecific
communities together—a phenomenon without which there would be no stable

16
Also in Favareau (2010: 454). See also Ikeshoji 1977.
17
See also Gauthier and Aubert (1981: 226).
Ecosystems Are Made of Semiosic Bonds 355

ecosystems—we need to look at the nature of bonds between the species. Since these
are communicational relations, based on the ontogenetic and phylogenetic
experience of the organisms, these are sign relations. As Hoffmeyer (2008: 195)
has said, “I believe that semiotic mutualism involving a delicate balance of
interactions between many species is widespread”. Of the existing concepts that
specifically focus on these types of relationships in ecosystems, we find the concept
of consortium well fitted for semiotic approaches to ecology.
From a more technical point of view, it is evident that relations that are sign-
relations require both a static or structuralist description (in terms of codes), and a
processual or dynamic or semiosic description (in terms of semiosis performed by
interpretation).
Thus we may conclude that all the above mentioned concepts—consortium,
ecological inheritance, umwelt, biophony, ecological code—are conceptually
connected. They can form an inherently connected system of concepts, and can be
used in a semiotic description of biological communities.

Acknowledgements To Tiina Sööt for the material on consortia. To Jesper Hoffmeyer and Sergey
Chebanov for good conversations on this topic. To the editors of this volume for an excellent work. To
colleagues for their permanent support. To ETF and CECT for supporting the research.

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