Land and groundwater resources are fundamental pillars of sustainable human development. The negligent abandonment of ammunition and its fragments during range activities can result in severe contamination of range sites, thereby posing a significant risk to both the ecological environment and human health. Nevertheless, numerous uncertainties persist regarding the comprehension of range contaminated sites. In this study, the literature on the range of contaminated sites decommissioned after 2000 was systematically examined to consolidate basic information related to these sites, such as contaminant types, contamination status, and remediation measures. Considerable attention is devoted to investigating the advancement of diverse techniques, such as phytoremediation, chemical leaching, and solidification/stabilization, to remediate polluted areas within decommissioned firing ranges. Among the various types of remediation means, physical remediation and chemical remediation have higher remediation efficiency, but generally have higher costs and are prone to secondary pollution. Bioremediation is low cost and environmentally friendly, but has a long restoration cycle. The choice of remediation method should be based on actual needs. Additionally, this study puts forth prospective avenues for future research. Ultimately, this endeavor aims to attract the interest of scholars toward the remediation of contaminated sites within firing ranges, thereby making a valuable contribution to both human wellbeing and sustainable progress.

Soil aggregation, an important indicator of soil restoration in degraded ecosystems, is a fundamental unit of soil structure. However, research on the influence of grass–shrub composites on the distribution of >0.25 mm soil water-stable aggregates (macroaggregates) is scarce. Therefore, this study focuses on the hill and gully region of the Loess Plateau, where vegetation has been well restored since the return of farmland to forests and grasslands. The study investigated the root and macroaggregate distribution characteristics and interrelationships of three widely distributed mixed vegetation types of Caragana korshinskii and Agropyron cristatum (C-AC), C. korshinskii and Bothriochloa ischaemum (C-BI), and C. korshinskii and Artemisia gmelinii (C-AG) in this area. The results indicate that soil macroaggregates decrease with increasing depth. Due to the spatial differences in the distribution of shrub root, the content of macroaggregates at 50 cm from the shrub base was higher than that at the shrub base, with an increase of 25.98%–34.27% in different vegetation associations. In this study, the root length density and root diameter better reflected the influence of roots on the distribution of macroaggregates, and the product of the two had a good power function relationship with the content of macroaggregates (R² ≥ 0.82, p < 0.01). Grey correlation analysis showed that the influence of root length density on the distribution of large aggregates was greater than that of root diameter. The content of macroaggregates in the vegetation association of taproot herbaceous plants and shrubs was higher than that of fibrous root herbaceous plants. The average soil macroaggregate content in the C-AG was 15.79%–248.6% higher than that in the C-BI and C-AC. In this study, the spatial distribution differences in root caused by shrub growth were the main reason for the spatial heterogeneity of soil macroaggregate content distribution. The improvement ability of soil macroaggregates was higher in the combination of taproot herbaceous plants and shrubs than in the combination of fibrous root herbaceous plants and shrubs. The results of this study can, to some extent, reveal the influence and mechanisms of plant roots on soil aggregates in grass–shrub vegetation association.