Abstract: Wetland soils affect the quantity, growth, development, morphology and distribution of plant communities. Selecting the core area of Huihe National Nature Reserve as the study area, the vegetation communities of wetland meadow, swamp meadow, transition meadow, mature meadow and saline-alkali meadow were investigated. Soil samples from the different meadows were also analyzed. The study investigated characteristics of the dominant plant communities, the distribution of soil elements and the relationship between the two. Results showed that the meadows’ vegetation characteristics were influenced by soil element distribution, hydrological regimes and plant growth characteristics. Changes in the Shannon-Wiener index and Simpson index showed a similar trend, with maximum values scored by mature meadow and minimum values by saline-alkali meadow. The Pielou index changes were: mature meadow<saline-alkali meadow<wetland meadow<swamp meadow<transition meadow. Swamp meadow had the highest aboveground and underground biomass, saline-alkali meadow the lowest. Meadow plants influenced soil nutrient content and change, while soil factors also had important feedback effects on vegetation growth. The results showed significant differences in soil elements across the different meadow plant communities. Transition meadows had the strongest capacity for absorbing and retaining soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. There was a significant positive correlation between the Shannon-Wiener index and soil moisture content (MC), while there was a significant negative correlation with soil available phosphorus (AP). Soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN) and available nitrogen (AN) were significantly positively correlated with vegetation height, soil SOM, TN and vegetation coverage. Vegetation aboveground and underground biomass were significantly negatively correlated with soil AP but positively correlated with AN. Soil total phosphorus (TP) had little effect on vegetation diversity, growth and biomass in this study. Redundancy analysis suggested that there was a certain degree of succession across the different meadows in Huihe wetland: mature meadow and wetland meadow might be the initial or final stage of the succession, and transitional meadow the middle stage. Soil nutrients were significantly affected by community succession.