[Background]Desert steppe is one of the important ecosystem types in China, which plays an important role in maintaining regional ecological balance. In recent years, desert grasslands are facing serious soil erosion problems due to overgrazing.[Objective]The effects of root traits of grassland plant communities on soil detachment capacity and the relative contribution of root winding-consolidation effect and root exudates bonding effect to soil erosion resistance under different grazing intensities were studied to provide scientific basis for soil and water loss control in desert steppe.[Method]Taking the Xilamuren desert steppe in Inner Mongolia as the research object, the soil detachment and scouring experiment was used to systematically determine the soil detachment capacity under four treatment conditions of no grazing, light grazing, moderate grazing and heavy grazing, and the root parameters such as root length density were calculated.[Results]With the increase of grazing intensity, the vegetation coverage and biomass of gramineous plants decreased, and the fine root content in the range of 0-1mm diameter decreased significantly. The soil detachment capacity under heavy grazing intensity was 2.5~3.1 times that of non-grazing plot. The root length density can characterize the soil separation ability. When the root length density >0.4cm/cm2 and the root weight density >0.6kg/m3, the soil separation ability is significantly reduced. The contribution rate of root winding-consolidation effect and root exudates bonding effect in inhibiting soil erosion was 0.65∶0.35.[Conclusion]Grazing intensity significantly affected the soil detachment capacity of desert steppe, and the entanglement-consolidation effect of roots played a key role in reducing the soil detachment capacity of desert steppe.