Abstract: Abstract: Deterioration of the local ecological environment due to coal mining is serious in the aeolian sand area, Northwest China. A better understanding of the evolution of aeolian sandy soil under coal mining disturbance is essential prior to the initiation of restoration of local ecological environment. In this study, the 137Cs tracing technique was used to investigate the characteristics of soil erosion and nutrients in coal mining disturbed lands of Shendong mining area, Northwest China. A plot without being disturbed by coal mining activities near Shendong mining area was selected as the control plot. As for the mining disturbed lands, an unexploited plot and 5 subsidence plots were selected as the study sites. The 5 subsidence plots include 4 self-recovery subsidence plots and one vegetation restoration plot. The 4 self-recovery subsidence plots (1ySP, 2ySP, 4ySP, 8ySP) have undergone stabilization for 1, 2, 4, and 8 years, respectively after surface subsidence. The vegetation restoration plot has experienced a 13-year duration of stabilization after surface subsidence, and has been planted with almond trees for 12 years. It was found that 137Cs inventories from the unexploited plot, subsidence plots and control plot were 32%-55% lower than local 137Cs reference inventory (726 Bq/m2), which demonstrates the background of severe wind erosion desertification in the study area. In comparison with the control plot, the 137Cs inventories in the unexploited plot, 1ySP, 2ySP, 3ySP and 4ySP decreased by 8%, 16%, 29%, 34%, and 10%, respectively. Changes in the nutrients, including soil organic carbon (SOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN) and total phosphorus (TP), showed a similar trend to the 137Cs variation. Unlike SOC, MBC, TN, AN, and TP, available phosphorus showed higher concentrations in the unexploited plot and the 4 self-recovery subsidence plots than that in the control plot. In addition, the 137Cs, SOC and TN concentrations increased in the vegetation restoration plot in comparison with that in the control plot. Overall, there were significant correlations between SOC, MBC, TN, AN, TP and 137Cs within the mining disturbed lands. It was also found that the coal-mining disturbed lands exhibited smaller ratios of MBC to SOC but greater ratios of SOC to TN (i.e. C/N) than the control plot. These results suggested that the intensity of soil erosion firstly increased and then decreased after surface subsidence in the aeolian sand area. Soil erosion increased sharply in the first 2 years after surface subsidence. The evolution of soil nutrients is closely associated with soil erosion evolution under coal mining disturbance. The present study provides evidences for the acceleration of soil erosion and nutrients depletion in unexploited lands of mining area by coal mining disturbance. As a consequence, there would be a considerable underestimation of the impact of mining subsidence on soil evolution when using unexploited plots as the control. Our study also suggested that vegetation restoration may effectively weaken soil erosion and improve soil nutrients in subsidence lands. Therefore, ecological restoration in subsidence lands of the aeolian sand area, Northwest China, should combat against earlier soil erosion after surface subsidence, and a plant-microorganism integrated remediation approach should be adopted to promote the positive succession of soil and vegetation.