At present,precipitation pattern has taken significantly change under the effect of global change.To find out how precipitation pattern changes in different regions is very important to understand climate change and its consequences.The change of precipitation pattern includes variations of precipitation amounts,precipitation days,inter-precipitation periods and precipitation intensity.Desert steppe was the typical vegetation type in temperate arid and semi-arid regions,which was very sensitive to climate change,especially precipitation pattern changes.Precipitation was the main limiting factor in desert steppe ecosystem,whose variability determined the basic functions of this ecosystem.So it was in urgent need to find precipitation pattern variations in Chinese desert steppe under global change background. In this study,precipitation data from 1956 to 2009 in typical desert steppe of Sunite Left Banner in Inner Mongolia were collected and precipitation amounts,precipitation days,inter-precipitation periods and precipitation intensity were analyzed.Among them,Mann-Kendall method was used to analyze precipitation tendency and test significance,least square method was used to calculate the tendency values.The result showed that(1) from 1956 to 2009,the whole tendency of the annual precipitation amount and growing season precipitation amount were decreased,but the change tendency was different with the time.Among them,precipitation increased in 1970s but decreased in 1960s,1980s and 1990s,then increased in 2000s.Annual mean precipitation amount was 191.9 mm,the range value was 100—250 mm,and the tendency value was-8.5 mm/10a.Amount of precipitation in the growing season accounted for 85% of the whole year′s,which mainly occurred from June to August,and the variation coefficient of each month was above 50%.(2) Both mean annual precipitation days and short inter-precipitation period decreased but long inter-precipitation period increased from 1956 to 2009.Annual mean precipitation days were 63.8 days,the range value was 50—80 d,the tendency value was-2.5 d/10a and its variation coefficient was 16.9%.Number of precipitation days in the growing season accounted for 63% of the whole year′s,and the variability of each month was above 28%,and tendency value was-3 d/10a.(3) Precipitation intensity was distinguished as six different types: light,relatively light,moderate,relatively heavy,heavy and extremely heavy.Precipitation events were dominated by moderate precipitation amounts and light rainfall days,and there were few events above moderate precipitation level,no matter in the whole year or each month of the growing season.Moderate precipitation accounted for 32% of annual precipitation amounts,and light precipitation accounted for 68% of the annual precipitation days.Precipitation decrease in the whole year mainly resulted from moderate precipitation events,while the decrease in precipitation during the growing season was primarily due to light precipitation events.In generally,from 1956 to 2009,mean annual precipitation amounts,precipitation days and the different precipitation types in the whole year and the growing season all decreased,particularly there was a consistent decline of annual precipitation days since 1990s. Decreasing annual precipitation would affect soil moisture and plant reviving,while decreasing precipitation in the growing season would directly affect carbon sequestration in the grasslands.Under the scenarios of climate change,reduced precipitation in the whole year and growing season would further exacerbate the degree of drought in this region and affect plant growth and development,and thereby to threat the development of grassland animal husbandry.