AbstractTo find out the relationship between the abundance and diversity of soil animals and soil characteristics in industrial zones, we investigated soil animals in litters of different functional zones in Baoshan Steel Plant. A total of 52,070 soil animals were collected using Tullgren funnel, belonging to three phyla, 10 classes and 19 orders. The dominant groups were Arcarina and Collembola, accounting for 90.60% of the total in terms of individual numbers. The common groups were Lepidoptera and Oligochaeta plesiopora. The results indicated that different functional zones had similar dominant groups but different common groups. Soil animal reduced along a gradient of production zone, transition zone, office zone. Similarity index showed that the five indices were different in different functional zones. The density-group index (DG) showed the following pattern: production zone > transition zone >office zone. The seasonal change of the total number of soil animals were ranked as: winter>autumn>summer>spring, while the number of soil animal groups were ranked as: winter=autumn>summer=spring. The pH, TOC, TN and TP of litters in different functional zones were different, which might have impacts on the distribution of soil animals.