A typical farmland-desert transitional zone in the Heihe River Basin was selected to explore soil water and heat dynamics in soil freezing-thawing processes under different landscapes. The main results were as follows:(1) Soil temperature was in response to air temperature quickly, but its amplitudes decreased with the increasing soil depth. The variation of soil temperature were ordered as:desert >farmland >shelterbelt, whereas the soil frost depth was ordered as:farmland(100 cm) >shelterbelt(80 cm) >desert(60 cm);(2) Due to the soil properties and surface cover, the soil moisture content of farmland and shelterbelt changed greatly, and the maximum occurred in early April, while soil moisture content of desert was almost invariant;(3) Changes of soil moisture laged behind that of soil temperature, soil water and temperature changes of shelter forest is slower than that of farmland;(4) Shallow groundwater level dropped during the freezing period, and rose during the thawing period, and the rise rate was greater than the drop rate. The soil freezing and thawing process could effectively reduce soil moisture evaporation and seepage by lifting subsoil moisture upward, and therefore help to conserve water in the deep soil, which has great significance to plants of the following year.