The rodents were investigated with the method of trap-day from May to August in 1988 similar to 1993 and in 1998 similar to 2003 respectively. The trap spacing between the rows was 50ms, and the spacing on the row from one to the others was 5ms. The quadrate area was 1.25 similar to 25hm(2). 157,702 trap-days were totally laid. 37 species and 4,623 rodents were captured, and 317 sampling plots were investigated in about 380000 km(2) of the research area based on the pasture and vegetation maps provided by the Local Grassland Administration Office of Inner Mongolia, China. The communities were classified in 9 zonal types by SAS software with minimal distance method in fast clustering; the parameter used in fast clustering was Eu's Distance. Community I Citellus dauricus+Cricetulus longicaudatus+Eutamias sibiricus community; community II Phodopus roborovskii+Cricetulus barabansis+Cricetulus longicaudatus community; community III Meriones unguiculatus+ Phodopus roborovskii+Cricetulus longicaudatus community; community IV Allactaga sibirica+Allactaga bullata+Dipus sagitta community; community V Allactage bullata+Dipus sagitta+Meriones unguiculatus community; community VI Meriones meridianus+Citellus dauricus+Allactaga bullata community; community VII Allactaga sibirica+Allactaga bullata+Dipus sagitta community; community VIII Phodopus roborovskii+Dipus sagitta+Allactaga sibirica community; community IX Meriones meridianus+Dipus sagitta+Allactaga sibirica community. Diversity and evenness analysis of the communities showed that edge effect of community, effect of disturbance and fragmentation of habitat and scale effect were significantly correlated with community diversity in the semi-desert and desert regions (from several hundred km(2) to several thousand km(2)). The ordinal results of 9 zonal rodent communities were in accord with the results analyzed with similarity indices of community, which indicated characteristics of 9 zonal rodent communities in the course of habitat change in this area. At the same time, it was comprehensively analyzed in the paper the change of zonal rodent community patterns in different habitats in the area and its connection with a degenerated ecosystem.