Abstract: An investigation was conducted on the status of soil salinization and the structure of soil animal community across six land use/cover types in an arid oasis of middle Heihe River basin, and the methods of redundancy analysis, regression analysis, and path analysis  were adopted to analyze the responses of the soil animal community under different land use/cover types and different management modes to the various status of soil salinization. The six land use/cover types were 21-year old shrub land without irrigation and fertilization, 28-year old poplar and 33-year-old pine plantations with irrigation, 27 and 100-year-old farmlands with irrigation and fertilization, and natural grassland, from which all the other five land use/cover types were converted. The results demonstrated that land cover change in the absence of management practices did not lead to a significant change in the abundance and group richness of the soil animal community, while land cover change in the presence of management practices resulted in a significant change in the soil animal community. The evolvement of the soil animal community structure was co affected by soil pH, soluble salt content, and Na⁺, Cl^-, HCO₃^-, and Mg²⁺ concentrations, among which, soil soluble salt and Na⁺ had the greatest contribution, being the key affecting factors. The abundance and group richness of the soil animal community had significant negative exponential correlations with soil soluble salt content and Na⁺ concentration, and significant quadratic correlations with soil Mg²⁺ and HCO₃^- concentrations. The calculated ecological threshold values of soil Mg²⁺ and HCO₃^- concentrations for the abundance and group richness of the soil animal community were 38.7-39.4 mg·kg^-1and 324.9-335.3 mg·kg^-1, at which, the abundance and group richness reached their peaks 40-43 individuals·m^-2and 13-14 families·m^-2, respectively. When the Mg²⁺ and HCO₃^-  concentrations increased further, the abundance and group richness decreased.