【Objective】The ecology of mining areas in the Loess Plateau is relatively fragile, while the vegetation restoration is closely related to soil microbe-mediated nutrient cycling. This study was designed to clarify the influence and regulatory roles of vegetation restoration on the functional groups related to soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, which are significantly important to rebuilding the ecological resilience and self-sustaining mechanism of mining areas.【Method】In this study, high-throughput qPCR chip technology, random forest model and structural equation model were used to reveal the changes and mutual feeding mechanism of soil characteristics, enzyme activities, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus functional groups under different vegetation restoration modes of Antaibao open-pit reclamation waste dump on the Loess Plateau. 【Result】 The results showed that Caragana korshinskii (bushwood, BL), Pinus tabuliformis (coniferous forest, CF), Robinia pseudoacacia (broad-leaved forest, BF) and Robinia pseudoacacia + Ulmus pumila (mixed forest, MF) were superior to soil nutrient accumulation compared with Populus simonii forest (CK). Compared to CF, soil organic carbon (SOC) of BL, BF and MF increased by 82.26%, 168% and 56.65%, respectively. The total nitrogen (TN) of BL, BF and MF enhanced by 68.31%, 130% and 46.75% comparing with CF, while the available phosphorus (AP) contents increased by 10.41%, 27.65% and 20.89%, respectively. Nevertheless, these were still significantly lower than that of CK (P<0.05). The soil catalase (CAT) activities of BL, CF, BF and MF increased by 95.6%, 101.0%, 46.4% and 120.0% respectively, and are significantly higher than that of CK (P<0.05). Also, the soil β-glucosidase (BG) and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) activities decreased significantly (P<0.05). The β-glucosidase activities of BL, CF, BF and MF decreased by 66.5%, 67.0%, 58.9% and 59.8%, while the leucine aminopeptidase activities decreased by 57.8%, 67.7%, 78.0% and 67.7%, respectively. The different modes of vegetation restoration significantly changed the relative abundances of functional groups related to carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus (P<0.05), whereas the variation tendencies always keep a consistent correspondence. The functional groups related to carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus were significantly positively correlated with soil nitrate nitrogen (P<0.001), but they presented negative correlations with ammonium nitrogen (P<0.01). The functional groups involved in the carbon cycle, nitrification process and organic phosphorus mineralization were significantly positively correlated with available phosphorus (P<0.01). In addition, results of the structural equation model showed that vegetation restoration could directly affect CAT and AP, thereby regulating the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycle. Otherwise, the vegetation restoration could affect soil AP indirectly, thereupon then regulating the abundances of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus functional groups, together with other soil characteristics, such as nitrate nitrogen or ammonium nitrogen. 【Conclusion】 This study might help deepen the knowledge about soil microbiology mechanism of vegetation restoration, which will furtherly help the ecological restoration of damaged mines in the Loess Plateau.