Soil health and ecosystem functioning are important topics in current ecological research. Soil nematodes are effective bio-indicators of ecosystem health, especially when evaluating soil pollution and restoration progress. In this study, soil nematode assemblages were measured at three 8-year-old plantations:Syzygium cumini, Acacia auriculiformis, Schima wallichii; a natural restored grassland, an oil shale waste (as the non-vegetated control) at an oil shale mined land in Maoming of Guangdong, China. Importance values of soil nematodes and energy flow analysis based on nematode assemblages were used to evaluate the status of soil health and nutrient cycling during the recovery process. The results showed that there were 54 and 45 genera of nematodes in the S. cumini plantation and in the A. auriculiformis plantations, respectively, in which the bacterivorous nematodes of Prismatolaimus and Acrobeloides had the highest importance value. There were 41 and 38 genera of nematodes in the S. wallichii plantation and in the grassland, respectively, in which the omnivorous nematodes of Eudorylaimus had the highest importance value. There were only 34 genera of nematodes in the "oil shale waste" site, in which the fungivorous nematodes of Filenchus and Aphelenchoides had the highest importance value. Energy flow analysis indicated a greater proportion of bacterial energy flow in S. cumini and A. Auriculiformis plantations, and the highest proportion of fungal energy flow in the oil shale waste site. Compared with the bacterial and fungal energy flow channels, the proportion of plant energy flow channel (i.e. energy flow from roots to herbivorious nematodes, then to higher trophic levels) was as low as 2%-10% across all the studied sites. Overall, the bacterial energy flow was more dominant in vegetated ecosystems, especially in the S. cumini plantation and in the A. auriculiformis plantations, implying faster nutrient turnover rates; whereas the fungal energy flow was more dominant in the non-vegetated ecosystems, implying slower nutrient turnover rates. This study also indicated that vegetation is the primary driver of the development of soil nematode communities.