The Northern Hemisphere of the earth has been experiencing remarkable climate warming in last century. Climate change has a profound influence on the distribution,range,and richness of species. Temperature and precipitation are two indicators of climate in most of studies. Because hydrothermic factor has a significant effect on desert ecosystem,it is particularly sensitive to climate fluctuations. Rodents are especially important components of the desert ecosystem,and are dominant species that play a key role in these systems. In addition,desert rodents have played an important role in the development of ecological theory and in the understanding of adaptations to xeric environments. Therefore,understanding the response of dominant rodent species to climate change is significant to biodiversity conversion. Desert ecosystems in China,compared with similar ecosystems in other continents,suffer more disturbances from human activities. Alxa desert is a typical desert ecosystem in China. Annual mean temperatures of Alxa desert have risen 9.05 degrees,and precipitation has increased 23.46mm in last decade. Against this Background,the response of desert rodents,especially dominant rodent species,to climate change,and how this response influences by human disturbances are keeping unknown. A study was conducted from 2002 to 2010 at prohibited-grazing,rotational-grazing,over-grazing,and cultivated sites to investigate the response of dominant rodent species to climate change in Alashan,Inner Mongolia,China. Rodent species were identified among and monitored with a live-trapping method. We trapped nine species including Dipus sagitta,Stylodipus andrewsi, Allactaga sibirica,Phodopus roborovskii,Cricetulus barabensis,Allocricetulus eversmanni,Meriones meridianus,Meriones unguiculatus and Spermophilus alaschanicus. M. meridianus was the dominant rodent species in prohibited-grazing and cultivated sites. However,A. sibirica and D. sagitta was the dominant rodent species in over-grazing and rotational grazing sites,respectively. The relationships of annual mean temperature and precipitation with rodent abundance were analyzed with Spearman correlation analysis and canonical correspondence analysis. The results showed that the response to temperature and precipitation was variable across rodent species. M. meridianus abundance was significantly correlated with annual precipitation in the previous year and annual mean temperature. The abundance optimum of A. sibirica and D. sagitta with respect to temperature was higher than that of M. meridianus and C. barabensis,but this pattern was reversed with respect to precipitation. Effect of temperature on desert rodent should be worked through influencing biology and ecological characteristics of animal,while precipitation affects the rodents through changing food resource and habitat. Precipitation has a pulse effect on M. meridianus abundance. These results suggested that human disturbance,occurring at a smaller spatial scale,should intensify or buffer the influence of precipitation rather than temperature on the dominant rodent species through altering food resource availability and habitat quality. These disturbances complex the response of rodent species to climate change,and have a further effect to community structure of desert rodent.