Supplementary information for "Theoretical Challenges in Landscape Ecology: Struggling with Terminology, Fragmentation, and Reductionism, while transitioning through Ecoscapes"

This dataset contains the supplementary information for the paper "Theoretical Challenges in Landscape Ecology: Struggling with Terminology, Fragmentation, and Reductionism, while transitioning through Ecoscapes". Abstract: Landscape ecology faces persistent theoretical challenges that undermine its predictive power and applicability. In this paper we identify and analyze these core issues (conceptual fragmentation, terminological ambiguity, and reductionist tendencies) which we consider, hinder the discipline's development into a science relevant for conservation. Through bibliometric analysis, we demonstrate moderate conceptual fragmentation, with research organized into partially overlapping subdomains that lack a unifying theoretical core. We also highlight how inconsistent terminology for concepts like "habitat" and "connectivity," coupled with an over-reliance on remote sensing data, leads to metric proliferation, case-study dominance, and a predictability crisis. These problems create a loop that erodes the discipline's coherence and credibility. To address these challenges, we propose a route that prioritizes conceptual clarity through the explicit definition of concepts and strengthens hypothesis-driven research to build unified, cumulative knowledge. By adopting these practices, we consider that landscape ecology may evolve to a science capable of effectively informing conservation and management while maintaining theoretical robustness. Within our analyses, we consider the ecoscape concept as a key integrative framework. It unifies the physical landscape with its multiple sensory dimensions (e.g., soundscapes, thermalscapes) into a coherent hierarchy, helping to overcome fragmentation and interpret complex interactions.