The ¹³⁷Cs tracing technology has been used the most extensively in the study on soil erosion, but with the decay of¹³⁷Cs in the environment, it is of critical importance to find a replacement for ¹³⁷Cs. Compared with¹³⁷Cs, artificial radioactive species, plutonium isotopes, which originate from the same source, have a longer half-life (24 110 years for²³⁹ Pu and 6561 years for ²⁴⁰Pu), and are more easily to get adsorbed by soil particles. Especially with the development of measuring technology, the technologies of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) are readily available for application, thus making the determination of Pu isotopes more efficient and more sensitive than that of ¹³⁷Cs. Consequently, Pu isotopes can be used as ideal replacements of ¹³⁷Cs as tracer in the study on soil erosion. In this paper analysis was done of the base for Pu isotopes being used as tracer in soil erosion from the three aspects: (1) source and distribution；(2) the adsorption and fixation of Pu in soil；(3) methods for measuring plutonium isotopes; a brief introduction was presented to the basic principles and application of Pu isotopes as tracer in the study on soil erosion; and discussions were conducted on orientation of the study on further application of Pu isotopes as tracer.