Abstract: This study was conducted to analyze the responses of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) to three typical revegetation patterns, i.e., grassland, alfalfa land and peashrub land on the Loess Plateau of China, and also to assess the dynamics of SOC and TN with revegetation age. The results showed that all the three revegetation practices increased the concentrations of SOC and TN in the 0-10 cm soil layer, but their effects differed with re-vegetation age. Compared with adjacent croplands, the concentrations of SOC and TN in the 0-10 cm soil layer in grassland did not change within 10 years of succession, but increased after 20 years of succession. In alfalfa land, the concentrations of SOC and TN increased by 51.6%-82.9% and 43.4%-67.0% in the 0-10 cm soil layer, with the increasing rates of stocks of SOC and TN being 0.17-0.46 and 0.015-0.043 t·hm^-2·a^-1, respectively. However, SOC and TN were not affected by re-vegetation age in alfalfa land. The increases of concentrations of SOC and TN remained high in the first 20 years after conversion of cropland to peashrub land, but decreased after 40 years of conversion. In conclusion, the conversion of croplands to peashrub or alfalfa land could be better in contributing to high stocks of SOC and TN than natural succession of grassland. However, their positive effects on the enrichment of SOC and TN may not be sustainable due to the scarcity of soil moisture and high water consumption of these two re-vegetation plants.