Land-use/cover change and management disturbance has been the major driver of ground arthropod diversity retention and loss in agricultural ecosystems. However, relatively few researchers have addressed contrasting responses of different trophic groups in ground arthropod communities to environmental changes induced by land-cover change and management disturbance in relation to their abundance and species richness in an arid ecosystem in Northwest China. Using pitfall trapping technique, we investigated abundance and species richness of three trophic groups (herbivores, carnivores and 'detritivores +ominivores’) of ground arthropod communities along a land-cover and management intensity gradient of 21-year-old cultivated shrubland without irrigation and fertilization, 28-year-old Poplar and 33- year-old Pinus plantations with irrigation, 27-year-old farmland with irrigation and fertilization, and natural sandy grassland as a control, from which all of cultivated systems were converted. Environmental variables (including soil texture properties and microclimatic conditions) of the five habitats under study were measured and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to determine the relationships between the abundances of three trophic groups and environmental variables. Our results demonstrated a significant reduction of the percentage of 'detritivores+ominivores’ and a marked increase of the percentage of either herbivores or carnivores over 20-30 years after conversion of natural sandy grassland to cultivated systems except for non-managed shrubland. Our data also revealed that changes in land-cover and management intensity had significant and differential impacts on the abundance and species richness of the three trophic groups. Conversion of natural grassland to cultivated shrubland has led to a significant reduction in the abundance of the three trophic groups, but did not influence greatly their species richness. Conversion of natural grassland to Polar plantation significantly reduced the abundance of 'detritivores+ominivores’, but did not influence the abundance of either herbivores or carnivores as well as species richness of all three trophic groups. Conversion of natural grassland to Pinus plantation significantly reduced the abundances of carnivores and 'detritivores+ominivores’, but enhanced the abundance of herbivores. Conversion of natural grassland to farmland significantly increased the abundance of herbivores, but reduced the abundance and species richness of 'detritivores+ominivores’. CCA demonstrated that key environmental factors affecting carnivore community distribution were ground temperature, soil NO₃-N and field capacity, whereas those affecting the distribution of herbivore communities were soil texture, soil NO₃-N and bulk density. Also, ground temperature and field capacity were found to be important dominants of 'detritivore+ominivore’ community distribution. These findings have important implications for improving our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of how land-cover change and management disturbance interactively affected the patterns of arthropod trophic group composition, diversity and abundance through their effects on biotic and abiotic conditions of studied habitats, which will help to develop a more effective management strategy for conserving ground arthropod assemblages in these arid ecosystems.