This Special Issue of Hortus Semioticus on the semiotics of nature offers the readers a variety of papers about nature, more specifically on topics of meaning, representation, signification, etc. All of the authors of the current issue are MA or PhD students, and their contributions emphasize semiotic aspects in and of nature.
Biosemiotics and other brands of semiotics of nature have played, and do play, a decisive role within semiotics in Estonia and Tartu, as they do in a number of other semiotic centres in countries like Denmark, the Czech Republic, Italy, Finland, and the USA. The last few years have seen several events in Tartu related to semiotics of nature, organised by the Department of Semiotics and Jakob von Uexküll Centre. Another such event of international scope follows next year, when the conference "Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations" is arranged (Tartu, April 4-8, 2011).
