The intrinsic complexity, variety of concepts and numerous ways to quantify landscape heterogeneity (LH) may hamper a better understanding of how its components relate to ecological phenomena. Our study is the first to synthesize understanding of this concept and to provide the state of the art on the subject based on a comprehensive systematic literature review of 661 articles published between 1982 and 2019. Definitions, terminologies and measurements of LH were diverse and conflicting. Most articles (534 out of 661) did not provide any definition for LH, and we found great variation among the studies that did. According to our review, only 10 studies measured the effects of different land-cover types on biotic or abiotic processes (functional LH). The remaining 651 studies measured physical attributes of the landscape without mentioning that different land-cover types may impact biotic and abiotic processes differently (structural LH). The metrics most frequently used to represent LH were the Shannon diversity index and proportion of land-cover type. Most metrics used as proxies of LH also coincided with those used to represent non-heterogeneity metrics, such as fragmentation and connectivity. We identify knowledge gaps, indicate future perspectives and propose guidelines that should be addressed when researching LH.

内在的复杂性、概念的多样性和量化景观异质性 (LH) 的多种方法可能会阻碍更好地理解其组成部分与生态现象的关系。我们的研究首次综合了对这一概念的理解，并根据对 1982 年至 2019 年间发表的 661 篇文章的全面系统文献回顾，提供了该主题的最新进展。LH 的定义、术语和测量方法多种多样且相互矛盾。大多数文章（661 篇中的 534 篇）没有提供 LH 的任何定义，我们发现提供定义的研究之间存在很大差异。根据我们的审查，只有 10 项研究测量了不同土地覆盖类型对生物或非生物过程（功能性 LH）的影响。其余 651 项研究测量了景观的物理属性，但没有提及不同的土地覆盖类型可能对生物和非生物过程产生不同的影响（结构 LH）。最常用于表示 LH 的指标是香农多样性指数和土地覆盖类型的比例。大多数用作 LH 代理的指标也与用于表示非异质性指标的指标一致，例如碎片化和连接性。我们确定知识差距，指出未来的观点并提出研究 LH 时应解决的指南。大多数用作 LH 代理的指标也与用于表示非异质性指标的指标一致，例如碎片化和连接性。我们确定知识差距，指出未来的观点并提出研究 LH 时应解决的指南。大多数用作 LH 代理的指标也与用于表示非异质性指标的指标一致，例如碎片化和连接性。我们确定知识差距，指出未来的观点并提出研究 LH 时应解决的指南。