Different artificial forest lands under typical slopes in southern Ningxia mountainous region were selected as research objects. We collected soil samplings from 0-600 cm different profiles to analyze vertical profile characteristics of soil moisture in apricot, poplar, elm, locust, pine, and with farmland as control group. Soil desiccation index, compared soil water deficit index, dry layer initial depth, thicknesses of desiccated soil layer and average water content in the dry layer were used to evaluate soil desiccation intensity and distribution characteristics, and used redundant analysis to determine the effects of relevant environmental factors on soil desiccation and dry layers. The results showed that: (1) the soil moisture of apricot, poplar, elm, locust and pine trees were moderately variable, and the average soil water content of 0-600 cm was 31.17%, 24.15%, 23.19%, 29.67% and 18.35%, respectively, which were lower than that of farmland. (2) The initial depth of soil dry layer, the thickness of soil dry layer and the distribution of soil moisture in vertical profile were obviously different in different lands. The initial depths of apricot, poplar, elm, locust, pine and farmland trunk layers were 90, 160, 140, 140, 160 and 600 cm, respectively. The thickness of dry layer was 510 cm, 460 cm, 480 cm, 480 cm, 460 cm and 0 cm, respectively. (3) The soil drying index of 0-600 cm profile of apricot, poplar, elm, locust and pine were 63.48%, 91.88%, 95.17%, 73.97% and 111.91%, respectively. The relative deficit index of soil moisture was 0.68, 0.59, 0.52, 0.63 and 0.41, respectively. The order of soil moisture desiccation intensity and deficit degree from high to low was apricot > locust > poplar > elm > pine. (4) RDA analysis showed that the arbor types， clay content and topographic conditions were important factors affecting soil dry layer.