Soil nematodes are pivotal for material cycling and energy flow in grassland ecosystems. Clipping is a widespread grassland management practice in northern China. However， the mechanisms by which clipping affects the composition and structure of soil nematode communities remain unclear. nematode functional footprints across plant communities remain poorly understood. This experiment examined how clipping influenced soil nematode composition， structure， and functional footprint across six plant communities in the typical steppe of Inner Mongolia， providing a theoretical basis for grassland ecosystem management. Clipping significantly increased the total abundance of soil nematodes， the relative abundance of bacterivores， the maturity index， and the Wasilewska index. At the same time， it reduced the relative abundance of plant parasitic nematodes， the nutritional diversity index， the Shannon-Wiener index， the evenness index， and the enrichment index. Fauna analysis revealed that clipping increased the functional footprint of soil nematodes and food web complexity， while it reduced the enrichment index. Soil nematode community composition was significantly affected by soil nitrate nitrogen content， total carbon content， and litter mass. Our results demonstrated that clipping restructured nematode community composition， reducing plant parasitic nematodes’ abundance， thereby improving soil nutrient functions and promoting plant growth. This study concludes that clipping effectively maintains soil nematode community structure in typical steppe， offering a science-based framework for sustainable grassland management in northern China.

Semi-arid grassland  /  Clipping  /  Soil nematodes  /  Fauna analysis  /  Biodiversity