Abstract: Changes in precipitation and nitrogen deposition have profound impacts on ecological processes and functioning. However, the patterns and mechanisms of soil biota response to such changes are poorly understood. A field manipulative experiment was established to examine the responses of soil animal communities to water and nitrogen addition in an oldfield grassland ecosystem. Neither water addition nor N deposition affected mite or collembolan abundance. Water addition significantly elevated soil nematode abundance by 14.9%. Nitrogen addition had little effect on nematode abundance, but significantly increased the abundance of bacterivores by 45.8%. Our results indicate that soil nematodes were more sensitive than soil mesoinvertebrates to changes in resource availability and microenvironment. In addition, the data indicate that increasing precipitation and N deposition independently affected soil animal community.