During desertification processes

change of plant community is closely related to spatial variation of soil nutrients. This research

conducted in a degraded hilly rangeland in the Ordos Plateau

aims to investi-gate spatial variation of soil nutrients for Stipa bungeana and Cynanchum komarovii communities at small scale using geostatistics methods. Results show that in spite of absence of shrub encroachment

fertile islands are distributed in two typical communities.Their development is not resulted from shrub encroach-ment

but from accelerated soil erosion due to vegetation damage. Hence

shrub encroachment cannot be considered as an assessment indicator of rangeland degradation. Multiple variable indicator Kriging method is also proved to be an alterative for integrated evaluation of soil nutrients.