Biological signaling field in mammals (towards 110th anniversary of professor N.P. Naumov)

Last 30 years the concept of biological signaling field, proposed by N.P. Naumov, developed, by and large, on the base of its main proposition according to which mammals leave on the landscape objects within a biogeocenosis some traces of their life activity forming, from generation to generation, the so called "matrix of stable elements" (Naumov, Goltzman et al., 1987). This matrix of stable elements is, really, a system of attractors. Within the context of signaling field, attractors are objects that attract animals' attention (Goltzman, Kruchenkova, 1999) and organize their usage of territory with all the resources that could be found on this territory. Elements of landscape attracting animals' attention form a system of attractors of the first order (basic attractors) (Nikol'skii, 2011). In perspective, as the signaling field develops, it is exactly them that form the basis of the matrix of stable elements which the system of unstable elements would be attached to. With regard to attractors of the first order, traces of mammals' life activity can be treated as attractors of the second order. Animals do not mark the resources themselves, but only the territory where those resources are located. Stable elements produce an olfactoryoptic image of the territory that is used by every new generation of mammals. A supposition is brought forward that, similar to biological productivity and species diversity, stable elements of signaling field are indicative of respective stages of an ecological succession. The matrix of stable elements is most steady in mature, climax communities. As an example, main runs that are used by many mammal species can be considered. Last years, publications appear regularly in which main propositions of the signaling field concept are applied. A necessary condition for further development of the concept seems to be the establishment of new exploratory methods including modeling of processes that lead to the matrix of stable elements formation.