Sandy desertification strongly affected the distribution and diversity of plant and animals in arid and semiarid areas. Ground beetles were mainly animals in the sand ecosystems, and very sensitive responses to vegetation and soil environmental change derived from sandy desertification. In this study, we select a natural desert adjacent to Zhangye oasis of the middle of the Hexi Corridor as a research region. The active sand dunes (ASD), interdune lowlands (IL), semi-fixed sand dunes (SFSD) and fixed sand dunes (FSD) were conducted depending on the degree of desertification development. Ground beetles in four habitats collected by pitfall trapping, and environmental aspects related to the scattering of beetles were explored. We found that ground beetle communities were significant difference among the four habitats and seasonal variation on ground beetle assemblage. The average dissimilarity of beetle community among ASD, IL, SFSD and FSD habitats in May was greater than that in August. The activity density of ground beetles in SFSD habitats was significantly higher than that in other three habitats in May and August, and diversity of ground beetles in FSD habitats was significantly higher than that in other three habitats in August. The response patterns of ground beetles to desertification were different with body sizes. The large and medium beetles response to desertification was more sensitive than small beetles, especially in May. The results of redundancy analysis (RDA) show that twelve vegetation and soil factors contributed to 49.8% of the variation in the ground beetles. Moreover, we found that vegetation, soil and the interaction between them are explained 16.3%, 4.2% and 29.3% of the variation in the ground beetles, respectively. The results of pRDA show that herbaceous species richness, shrub cover, soil coarse sand, and soil organic carbon content were fundamental environmental factors affecting the distribution of ground beetles, which contributed to 43.7% of the variation in the ground beetles. The Pearson correlation analysis shows that herbaceous species richness were significantly positive correlations with the activity density of ground beetles, and an opposite pattern was observed on the evenness index; the shrub cover was significantly positive correlation with diversity index of ground beetles; species richness of ground beetles was significantly positive correlation with herbaceous species richness and shrub cover. In addition, a strong indication of ground beetles for habitat type was found. Blaps gobiensis, Cyphogenia chinensis, Deracanthus potanini and Sternotrigon kraatzi were indicator taxa for FSD habitats. Anatolica spp. were indicator taxa for SFSD habitats. Mantichorula semenowi can be used as indicator taxa for IL and ASD habitats. In short, community structure and species identity of ground beetles in the sandy desert can be used as indicator species for sandy desertification derived from vegetation and soil degradation.