In order to reveal the influence of biological soil crusts on soil infiltration in desertification combating areas, biological soil crusts including algae crusts (AC), mosses crusts (MC) and herb-mosses crusts (H-MC) in the artificial desert control area in the east of Yellow River in Ningxia were chosen as the main subjects. Based on double ring experiments and indoor simulation experiments, the properties of soil covered by the crusts and the characteristics of its infiltration were explored separately. The results showed that:(1) compared with bare sand (BS), the sand content on the surface covered individually by 3 other types of crusts decreased by 2.0%-5.1%, the silt content increased by 3.6%-5.8%, and the organic matter content increased by 5 to 6 times. Total porosity and saturated moisture of soil covered by AC and MC declined, while that of H-MC had the opposite trend; (2) The average infiltration rate showed BS>H-MC>AC>MC, and the cumulative infiltration volume per hour showed H-MC>BS>AC>MC. Compared with BS, the initial infiltration rate of AC, MC and H-MC had a decrease of 14.3%, 37.2%, 11.8% separately, the decline in stable infiltration rate of AC and MC was 14.4% and 18.3%, and the stable infiltration rate of H-MC had a rise of 4.5%; (3) The Kostiakov model performed better than the Horton and Philip models in the simulation of biocrusts infiltration processes. In conclusion, the existence of biological soil crusts with different levels of development changed the properties and infiltration characteristics of the soil. MC and AC led to decrease in water infiltration, while H-MC gave rise to the opposite.