Theoretical ecology and information theory: some unifying principles

The article discusses a number of concepts, quantities and laws that came to ecology from physics and informatics, and became widespread due to their deep semantic content. Although the importance of information processes for the realization of ecological functions is widely recognized today, the fundamental principles of information theory are not sufficiently reflected in theoretical ecology. The review is structured around a number of questions about the role that information can play in ecological systems. At the same time, two aspects of information that reflect its dual role are discussed: syntactic information (processes that encode, filter and process information stored in an ecological structure) and semiotic information (related to structures and their context). As a result, ecological objects are presented as open thermodynamic systems that receive information and non-entropic "resupply" from the outside to organize their own structure.