Abstract Urban land development often leads to compacted and degraded soils, hindering urban tree establishment and growth and related ecosystem services. Thus, there is a growing interest in restoring degraded soils through various urban soil management practices (USMPs). However, the impact of different USMPs on soil properties, tree establishment and growth, and ecosystem services has not been comprehensively documented and evaluated. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a literature review, and 41 peer-reviewed articles were selected from 5,913 articles for this analysis. The key response variables included soil bulk density, soil pH, tree growth, total soil carbon, and soil infiltration rates. Existing USMPs were grouped into 4 main categories: (1) organic matter amendments; (2) organic matter with tillage/subsoiling; (3) organic matter with vegetation; and (4) vegetation alone. Urban soil research is unevenly distributed globally, with more than half (53.7%) of studies in the United States, and most studies (82.8%) were short term (≤ 4 years). Generally, USMPs improved soil properties and enhanced tree growth and ecosystem services by reducing 28% to 51% soil bulk density and increasing nutrient availability, microbial activities, infiltration rates, tree growth, and total soil carbon. These findings provide valuable insights on restoring degraded urban soils, sustaining/increasing urban tree canopy cover, and enhancing urban sustainability for urban foresters/planners, policy- and decision-makers, and researchers.
Tamang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.