The temporal variability of soil water and its dynamics in Populus euphratica growth period in Minqin Oasis was investigated using geostatistics. The results show that the soil water content ranged be-tween 0. 85% ~ 4. 80% in the study area. The soil water contents increased with soil depth in both Shuangcike and Suwu Towns

while increased first and then decreased with the depth in Jiahe Town. The surface soil water content reached the lowest value in August. The soil water content in the growing season of the natural Populus euphratica forests varied considerably; the soil water content was higher in the spring

intermediate in autumn

and lower in summer. The variation efficient in general indicated a middle or strong variability in soil water content. However

the variation efficient of surface soil water content was greater than the others. The soil water content was less under Populus euphratica trees with greater diame-ters

which mainly related to the tree-age and root system. Overall

the soil water contents exhibited inter-mediate spatial correlation

and the variograms model for Suwu Town had the highest fitting coefficient.