In order to provide theoretical evidences for vegetation recovery and soil loss control in the gully region of the loess plateau,surface soil moisture characteristics were analyzed by addressing the influences of precipitation and vegetation cover on soil moisture.The experimental plots of Wangdonggou basin in Changwu County was selected as the study site.The results show that soil moisture contents in the 0-30cm soil layers varied moderately.Soil moisture contents of sunny slope(15°)were lower than half sunny slopes(35°).The variations of soil moisture contents responded to the rainfall closely;the soil moisture contents in the 0-10cm layers approximately synchronized with rainfall,but the agreement between soil moisture content and rainfall variations was poor in the 10-20cm and 20-30cm layers.It was observed that the higher the vegetation coverage,the higher the mean of moisture contents.When the vegetation coverage was over 40%,the trend that soil moisture content decreased with soil depth became more obviously in soil profiles of middle slope and down slope.The soil moisture means gradually increased from the summit to foot slope.Soil moisture contents decreased with depth in the 0-30cm soil layers.