Abstract: In this paper,vegetation change and soil nutrition in the early period of restoration of desert grassland in Alxa were studied.The results showed that vegetation coverage and biomass of enclosed desert grassland increased by 272%~536% and 44.39%~305.5% respectively compared to those of unenclosed desert grassland under the similar environments.Vegetation restoration also resulted in the changes of soil physicochemistry properties including the significant increase in contents of organic matter,total nitrogen,available potassium,fine sand,very fine sand and clay,and the decrease in available nitrogen,phosphorus.Significantly,positive correlations were found between soil contents of organic matter,total N,total P and < 0.05 mm clay particle,available K,and between contents of organic matter,total N and total P.

Key words: desert grassland, restoration, vegetation, soil physicochemical properties, Alxa