Abstract: The plants in arid environment are constrained not only by water availability, but also by soil nutrient conditions. In order to clarify to what extent nutrient addition would facilitate the growth of plants in semiarid region, we conducted a nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition experiment in Inner Mongolia temperate grassland in 2012 and 2013. In our experiment, N was added at 10 and 40 g N·m^-2·a^-1 alone or in combination with P addition (10 g P·m^-2·a^-1). N addition significantly improved plant aboveground biomass (AGB) during the two study years. AGB in the treatments of 10 and 40 g·m^-2·a^-1 was enhanced by 50.8% and 65.9% in 2012, and 71.6% and 93.3% in 2013, respectively. However, no significant difference in AGB enhancement was found between two N addition treatments. Compared with N addition treatments at the rates of 10 and 40 g·m^-2·a^-1, N plus P addition improved AGB by 98.4% and 186.8% in 2012, and 111.7% and 141.4% in 2013, respectively. N addition generally increased all the three main functional types (i.e., Gramineae, Asteraceae and others), and the three functional types contributed nearly equally to the increase of the community AGB. In comparison, Asteraceae contributed largest to the increments of AGB under the N plus P addition treatments. Our results also indicated that N and P addition remarkably increased the ground coverage, resulting in improved surface soil moisture condition, which might be one important reason that N and P addition could facilitate plant growth in arid environment.