Engineering Soils to Improve the Performance and Sustainability of Phytoremediation

Abstract. Phytoremediation uses plants and plant-associated processes to manage contaminated soils while supporting ecosystem restoration. However, its effectiveness is often constrained by degraded soil quality, limited rooting depth and contaminant access, and long-term management requirements. While constructed soils have increasingly been used to rehabilitate degraded land and support vegetation establishment, their potential role in enhancing phytoremediation performance has not been comprehensively reviewed.

This review examines how constructed soils can be integrated with phytoremediation approaches to overcome soil-related limitations and improve contaminant management at contaminated sites. We focus on contamination characteristics, soil design and amendments, engineering practices, biotic and abiotic site conditions, and plant selection strategies.

The reviewed literature demonstrates that appropriate soil engineering, including the use of constructed soils, can improve plant establishment, modify contaminant bioavailability and mobility, and enhance the performance of phytoremediation strategies. Overall, integrating soil engineering and constructed soils with phytoremediation represents a promising framework for contaminated-site management. By improving rooting conditions, enhancing contaminant accessibility or immobilization as required, and facilitating vegetation establishment, constructed soils can increase phytoremediation effectiveness and long-term sustainability. This integrated approach can also support ecosystem-service restoration, climate-change adaptation and mitigation, and the circular reuse of locally available surplus materials, although evidence on cost and long-term field performance remains limited.