[Objective] This study aimes to accurately evaluate the soil improvement benefits and to reveal the nutrient limitations under different vegetation types in the open-pit dump in the sandy loess area, so as to provide a theoretical basis to construct an efficient vegetation restoration model for ecological reconstruction and environmental improvement in this area. [Methods] The soils from ten kinds of vegetation restoration modes, belonging to three vegetation types of forest, shrub, and grass were selected as study samples, while the soil from the newly dumped land was selected as control. The ecological stoichiometric characteristics of soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus and their relationships were studied. [Results] The values of soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus for soil under different vegetation types of dump in sandy loess region varied between 0.62～18.60 g/kg, 0.09～0.36 g/kg and 0.04～0.21 g/kg, respectively. The values of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in the forest land and shrub land were significantly greater than those in the newly dumped land(p≤0.05), and the values of total phosphorus in the arboreal land were significantly lower than those in the other three plots(p≤0.05). In the vertical section of soil layer, the soil nutrients of three types of planting cover enriched in the surface layer. The soil total nitrogen amount of shrub land was the highest in different soil layers, the mean soil organic carbon amount of arbor land was the highest, and the mean soil total phosphorus amount of grass land was the highest. There was no significant difference in soil C/N among different vegetation types(p＞0.05). Soil C/P and soil N/P were greatly affected by vegetation types, and all of them showed the order: new soil dumping of arbor land＞shrub land＞grass land＞new dump. In the vertical section of soil layer, soil C/N showed the increasing trend overall, and soil N/P firstly decreased and then increased with the increase of soil layer depth. Soil organic carbon was significantly positively correlated with soil C/N, C/P and N/P(p≤0.01). Soil total nitrogen was significantly positively correlated with soil C/P and N/P(p≤0.01), while soil total phosphorus was on the contrary. Soil N/P in arbor land was high, and vegetation growth was limited by the phosphorus amount. Soil N/P in grass land and shrub land was low, and vegetation growth was limited by the nitrogen amount. [Conclusion] It is suggested that grass and shrub should be planted at the early stage of vegetation restoration to improve soil surface nutrients; furthermore, nitrogen fertilizer should be applied appropriately. With the improvement of soil fertility, trees should be gradually planted and phosphorus fertilizer should be applied to enhance the reclamation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]