Due to the special role as connection corridor between oasis and desert,oasis-desert ecotone was a key area to carry out research on ecosystem degradation and recovery in arid region.As the result of dry climate,fragile environment system and long-term human activities,Minqin oasis and its surrounding areas had degraded seriously.In this study,the desert plant communities in the oasis-desert ecotone of Minqin (Minqin ODE) were selected as case study.We obtained valuable data on 19 major plant species from 47 study plots of desert plant communities in Minqin ODE and analyzed that by the means of two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) in order to identify the main plant associations and environment gradient correlated to their distribution.The results show that:(1)In Minqin ODE,the structure of desert vegetation communities is simple and the species of plants have the characteristics of drought resistance and salt tolerance (2)The outcome of TWINSAN shows that the desert plant communities in Minqin ODE were composed of 11 plant associations and its rationality was verified by DCA ordination.Meanwhile,the succession trends of Minqin ODE are also reflected spatially in the classification result.The main associations include Nitraria tangutorum+Halogeton glomeratus,N.tangutorum+Phragmites australis,N.tangutorum+Kalidium foliatum,K.foliatum+Lycium ruthenicum et al.(3)The result of DCA ordination shows that the groundwater table and landforms are the leading factors which decide the association type and spatial distribution of desert plant communities in the Minqin ODE.