Oil and natural gas pipelines are essential to the transport of energy materials, but construction of these pipelines commonly causes disturbance to ecosystems. Due to variability in pipeline installation practices and environments, drawing consensus about how pipeline installations typically impact ecosystems is challenging. Here, we performed a systematic literature review to compile studies that have evaluated impacts of pipeline installation on soil and plant properties. We found 34 studies reporting pipeline impacts on agricultural and natural ecosystems from eight countries. We quantified and synthesized the magnitude of responses and found that the majority of studies found pipeline installation resulted in soil degradation via increased compaction and soil mixing, paired with decreased aggregate stability and soil carbon (C) relative to adjacent, undisturbed areas. Averaged across all studies, aggregate stability decreased 44.8%, water infiltration was reduced 85.6%, and compaction via penetration resistance increased 40.9% over pipeline areas relative to nondisturbed adjacent areas. This soil degradation led to general declines in plant productivity, with 15 out of 25 studies documenting declines in crop yields (6.2-45.6%) and six out of nine studies reporting decreased biomass from natural ecosystems (1.7-56.8%). We conclude from our quantitative synthesis that pipeline installation typically results in degraded soil and vegetation resources, and this can persist for many years following installation.

Degradation of natural resources, including increased soil compaction, soil horizon mixing, and decreased crop yields have been common outcomes of underground pipeline installation. However, most of the research documenting the impacts of pipeline installation on soil and crops was conducted before contemporary best management practices were developed and implemented. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of pipeline installation on soils and field crops after a 4‐ to 5‐year remediation period, coinciding with the end of landowner compensation and when sites are considered fully remediated by pipeline companies. We report soil properties and corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] yields from three independently operated pipelines at 29 sites across 8 Ohio counties. We observed significant degradation in soil physical properties, such as surface penetration resistance (15.3% increase) and mean weight diameter of soil aggregates (13.6% decrease) in right‐of‐way (ROW) areas compared with adjacent (ADJ) areas, respectively. Soils in ROW showed evidence of soil horizon mixing, with 25.0 g kg−1 higher clay compared with ADJ areas. Soil degradation resulted in decreases of 23.8% and 19.5% in corn yields and 7.4% and 12.5% in soybean yields during 2020 and 2021, respectively. Widespread disturbance persisted 5 years following pipeline installation in soil physical, chemical, and biological properties. Current best management practices of pipeline installation and remediation employed by three companies were insufficient to combat widespread soil degradation and crop yield loss.