[Objective] Studying the links of the change process of vegetation cover and soil moisture in East China, to reveal the impact mechanism of the former to the later.[Methods] This research described the variation of cropland and forest by trajectory analysis using MODIS MCD₁₂Q₁ and researched the soil moisture variation caused by land cover change on the basis of AMSR-E soil moisture data with high spatial resolution.[Results] (1) All kinds of land cover existed three forms:afforestation trajectory; deforestation trajectory; permanent trajectory. (2) Soil moisture showed decreasing tendency in all the trajectories of cropland and forest. (3) For forest trajectories, the order of soil moisture was:permanent forest trajectory > afforestation forest trajectory > deforestation forest trajectory; while for cropland trajectory, the rank was deforestation cropland trajectory > afforestation cropland trajectory > permanent cropland trajectory. (4) The variation of soil moisture caused by land cover was affected by their ages. E.g., soil moisture under forest would take for more than 7 years to reach its maximum capacity, while in cropland, it was minimum at this age.[Conclusion] As the main land cover types in East China, forest and farmland's trajectory in years of 2003-2010 had a downward trend of soil moisture. With the prolonging of forest growth and cultivation, soil moisture of forest and cropland were increased and decreased, respectively,and reached their maximum and minimum values after 7 years of growth and cultivation, respectively.