In this paper, desert grassland, grassland edge, shrub edge, and shrubland were selected as four transition sites in a typical anthropogenic desert grassland-shrubland mosaic in desert steppe of eastern Ningxia, China. The soil moisture, above-vegetation and soil seed bank were investigated to understand the response of vegetation to the desert grassland-shrubland state anthropogenic transition. The results showed that the soil moisture of 0-200 cm soil layer in each site presented a significant downward trend with the transition (P<0.05), and the soil moisture in desert grassland, grassland edge and shrubland edge were increased with the autumn rain supplement, while that in shrubland decreased due to the depletion of the deep soil water by shrubs. The deep soil moisture in shrubland edge and shrubland were significantly lower than those in desert grassland, grassland edge (P<0.05), while there were in no significant vertical distribution dynamics in these two sites. Except for the dominance index, the diversity, uniformity, and richness indexes in the shrubland were significantly lower than those in other three sites (P<0.05),and the perennial dominant herbs Agropyron mongolicum, Stipa breviflora were gradually replaced by annual herbs Dysphania aristata and Artemisia scoparia. The germination species number of soil seed bank decreased gradually, however, the density of seed banks increased significantly with the transition (P<0.05),and the soil seed banks germinated in shrubland were dominated by annual herbs (accounting for 97.51% of the total density), while which in desert grassland were mainly perennial herb. And the germination of soil seed bank and perennial herb in four sites were concentrated in 0-5 cm soil layer (P<0.05); The similarity coefficient (SC) between above-ground vegetation and underground soil bank in the grassland and shrubland were 0.14 and 0.19, respectively, which were significantly lower than the SC in the two edge sites (0.35), and the two sites were relatively stable than the edge sites, occurring the bistable state of vegetation shift in the process of desert grassland-shrubland anthropogenic transition.