As a common treatment of waste straw, open straw burning is widespread in China, especially during harvest seasons every year. Recently, many studies have focused on the effect of straw burning on the regional atmospheric environment. However, there is relatively limited data on the change in the biochemical properties of soil. In order to better evaluate the effects of field straw burning on soil organic matter content, microorganism quantity, and soil nutrient content, a 4-month field trial was initiated in 2013. In the experiment, 4 treatments were used with different amounts of wheat straw:reduced burning(0.24 kg/m², as A1), normal burning(0.48 kg/m², as A2), and incremental burning(0.72 kg/m², as A3), and no burning(as CK). The effects of burning treatments on soil organic matter content, microorganism quantity, and soil nutrient content were measured by analysis of soil samples from 0-5 cm depth of topsoil, which were collected 4 times on June 13th(one day after straw burning), July 10th(maize seedling stage), August 15th(maize tasselling stage), and October 8th(maize maturity stage). The results showed that there were significant changes in soil organic matter content, quantities of fungi, bacteria, and actinomycetes, as well as total and available P, K, and N due to the different burning treatments. The immediate effect of straw burning on these indicators was marked. The burning treatments had adverse influences on soil organic matter and microorganisms. Compared with the CK treatment, soil organic matter content decreased by 11.0%-22.1%. The quantities of fungi, bacteria, and actinomycetes decreased by 30.8%-56.1%, 50.6%-72.6%, 46.9%-68.3%, respectively. Soil total and available nutrient content increased significantly(P < 0.05). The content of total P, total K, total N, available P, available K, nitrate nitrogen, and ammonium nitrogen increased by 6.5%-12.9%, 4.6%-18.1%, 2.6%-13.2%, 9.8%-39.1%, 13.2%-39.1%, 8.6%-38.7%, 1.4%-9.2%, respectively. Meanwhile, the study found these indicators showed an increasing trend with the increase of burned wheat straw amount, namely in the order A3> A2> A1. Throughout the growth period of maize, soil organic matter and microorganism quantity in the three burning treatments recovered to different extents. After the maize growth period, compared with the previous stage after burning, soil organic matter content in burning treatments recovered 5.6% on an average in the order A1> A2> A3. The microorganism population restored to a higher degree than that of organic matter. Bacteria had the fastest recovery rate among the three microbes. In the maize seedling stage, the quantity of fungi, bacteria, and actinomycetes in the burning treatments was 12.7%, 17.4%, 11.9% lower than that of CK, respectively. At the maize tasselling and maturity stage, the microorganism quantities had no significant differences between the burning treatments and CK, which indicated that the microbial quantities had reached the normal level two months later after burning. Soil available nutrient content in the burning treatments was higher than that of CK during the maize growth period. At the seedling, tasselling, and maturity stage, compared with the CK, the available P content increased by an average of 24.9%, 27%, and 29.2%; available K content increased by an average of 24%, 14.1%, and 15.2%; ammonium nitrogen content increased at an average of 25.5%, 23.1%, and 20.2%; and nitrate nitrogen content increased at an average of 20.8%, 19.2%, and 19.8%, respectively.