Severe soil erosion has threatened land resources in Northeastern China,however,a few researches were conducted on sediment yield in the region. To study the characteristics of the evolution of sediment yield in the Songhua River basin,the characteristics of temporal variation of precipitation were analyzed by using daily precipitation records from 116 stations and the characteristics of temporal variation of runoff and sediment load were analyzed based on daily runoff and sediment yield data from 14 typical hydrological stations. Results showed that from 1961 to 1990,there was no obvious increasing trend of precipitation or runoff in the studied watersheds,but the increasing trend of sediment load was obvious,with an average trend of 34.7% in each 10 years,and the trend was more obvious in hilly region than mountainous region. Sediment yield has increased sharply since 1979 and human activities,rather than precipitation,may play an important role in the increase of sediment yield.