Background <p>The conversion of arid desert landscapes into oasis farmlands significantly alters the diversity of arthropods across different trophic levels, reshaping the structure and function of soil food webs and subsequently affecting the complexity and stability of biotic networks.</p> Methods <p>In this study, conducted in the Zhangye Oasis of Northwest China, we systematically investigated changes in ground arthropod communities using pitfall trapping across natural desert and farmlands with varying cultivation years (10-, 30-, 50-, and 100-years).</p> Results <p>The results revealed that: (1) The activity density and species richness of ground arthropods exhibited stage responses to cultivation years, with significantly higher activity densities observed in natural desert and 50-year-old farmlands compared to other farmlands; (2) Cultivation promoted the activity of Arachnids, predatory, and herbivorous beetles, while significantly reducing the activity density of omnivorous beetles, which remained highest in natural desert habitats; (3) The 100-year farmland exhibited the highest network complexity, consisting of 28 nodes and 51 edges, yet demonstrated the lowest network stability; (4) Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) showed that soil water content (SWC), electrical conductivity (EC), ammonium nitrogen (NH₄⁺–N), nitrate nitrogen (NO₃⁻–N), and available phosphorus (AP) collectively explained 32.5% of the variation in the ground arthropod community. Among these, NH₄⁺–N (<i>R</i>² = 0.74), AP (<i>R</i>² = 0.34), and NO₃⁻–N (<i>R</i>² = 0.04) were key driving factors, with omnivorous beetles and Arachnids being the most sensitive to environmental changes.</p> Conclusions <p>Overall, while cultivation in oasis farmlands enhances the abundance of predatory arthropods and the complexity of soil biotic networks, long-term cultivation may compromise the stability of ground arthropod communities.</p>