Growing ecological problems have raised the need for conceptual tools dedicated to studying semiotic processes in cultural-ecological systems. Departing from both ecosemiotics and cultural semiotics, the concept of an ecosemiosphere is proposed to denote the entire complex of semiosis in an ecosystem, including the involvement of human cultural semiosis. More specifically, the ecosemiosphere is a semiotic system comprising all species and their umwelts, alongside the diverse semiotic relations (including humans with their culture) that they have in the given ecosystem, and also the material supporting structures that enable the ecosemiosphere to thrive. Drawing parallels with Juri Lotman’s semiosphere concept, the ecosemiosphere is characterized by its heterogeneity, asymmetry, and boundedness. But unlike Lotman’s concept, the ecosemiosphere is not characterized by an overall boundedness, that is, by the presence of external binary boundaries and the shared identity arising from this unity. The involvement of human culture in the ecosemiosphere manifests in interspecies dialogues and semiotic engagements. We need to scrutinize what affordances and semiotic resources culture could offer to nonhuman species and how culture could, by semiotic means, raise the integrity, stability, and resiliency of the ecosystem. The ecosemiosphere is a grounded semiosphere.

日益严重的生态问题引起了对专门用于研究文化生态系统符号过程的概念工具的需求。来自ecosemiotics和文化符号学出发，一个概念ecosemiosphere提议用“符号”来表示生态系统中整个符号学的复杂性，包括人类文化符号学的参与。更具体地说，生态系统圈是一个符号系统，包括所有物种及其本属，以及在给定的生态系统中它们所具有的各种符号关系（包括人类及其文化），以及使生态圈得以蓬勃发展的物质支撑结构。与朱里·洛特曼（Juri Lotman）的半球概念相类似，生态圈的特征是其异质性，不对称性和有界性。但是与洛特曼的概念不同，生态宇宙圈的特征不是整体有界，即外部二元边界的存在和由这种统一性产生的共同身份。人类文化对生态圈的参与体现在种间对话和符号活动中。我们需要仔细研究文化可以为非人类物种提供什么能力和符号资源，以及文化如何通过符号学手段提高生态系统的完整性，稳定性和弹性。生态圈是一个接地的半球。