Abstract: The variability characteristics of soil nutrients play important role in the variation of the forest community structure and the evolution of ecosystem processes. The Qilian Mountains was selected as the study area and aims to analyze the variation characteristics of soil nutrients in the study area, the samples were unbiasedly selected during the fields work. The variation functions were used to quantify the extent and scale of the variation, the data were obtained using Palintest soil nutrient test Kits, laboratory analysis provided the necessary data related to the environmental variables. The data were analyzed using DPS 7.5 and EXCEL software. As to the soil nutrient, some conclusions are as follows: the autocorrelation exists among six soil types, obvious difference can be detected; The variation coefficients of TN，TP，TK，NH+4-N，NO-3-N and organic are 37.6%，23.1%，4.6%，36.3%，109.9% and 32.9%, respectively. Among these variations, the TK is relatively weak, TN，TP，NH+4-N are moderate, and NO-3-N are relatively strong. The changes of NH+4-N，NO-3-N，organic and TN in the section show a logarithmic decrease trend, and TP，TK show a logarithmic increase trend, NH+4-N and NO-3-N show a multinomial change with the altitude and a linear change, respectively. Variation ranges of TN，TP and TK are 0.19%-0.4%， 0.043%-0.056% and 1.85%-2.014%, respectively, and their changes are not obvious.

Key words: soil nutrient, variation characteristic, Qinghai spruce, Qilian Mountains